Category Archives: Tutorials

Viewing and applying individual putative heterozygotes

The heterozygote analysis tool allows you to either view heterozygotes in Sanger trace files or to permanently change the basecalled sequence with an ambiguity representing the called heterozygote. The tool works on multiple trace files in the Assembly project manager or the Align to Reference editor. You can also run it on a single trace file in the Single Trace Editor. But […]

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Virtual Gene Cloning from NGS RNA-Seq Data

The NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) database is a huge resource of Next Generation Sequencing experimental data. Many groups and laboratories deposit data here that they have generated for their own specific projects that can be datamined for other unrelated projects with a minimum of effort. MacVector contains a number of powerful tools that can […]

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Working From Home: An overview of primer design workflows in MacVector.

Working from home?. We want to help familiarize you with the wide range of functionality in MacVector that you may never have used before. Here’s an overview of workflows for designing, testing, documenting and storing primers. You may not have a PCR machine on the kitchen table, but why not take the time to store […]

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Identifying transposon insertion sites from multiplexed NGS data

Transposon mutagenesis is a common approach for investigating gene function in bacterial genomes by selecting for clones where the transposon inserting into the genome has generated a specific phenotype. You can then simply sequence the entire genome of each clone by NGS to identify the transposon insertion site. To lower the cost of such experiments, […]

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Human Transcriptome RNA-Seq Analysis Using MacVector

With MacVector Pro and Assembler you can use Bowtie to perform RNA-Seq analyses using NGS data. The interface even has specialized output tabs listing the coverage information and statistics for each annotated CDS and gene feature on the genome. You can download a short tutorial and a sample dataset that illustrate the analysis workflow using […]

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Use Database | Auto-Annotate Sequence to annotate prokaryotic genomes

The continuing advances in Next Generation Sequencing have made it relatively low cost to sequence prokaryotic genomes. Many scientists are embarking on large projects to sequence multiple related genomes. These might be clinical isolates of the same species exhibiting different pathogenetic properties, environmental isolates from different sites, or a study over time of the changes […]

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Using MacVector’s Auto Annotate tool to annotate blank sequences.

  Have you ever been sent a plain unannotated sequence, or downloaded a sequence from Entrez and been disappointed as it doesn’t have the carefully curated graphical appearance of your favorite genes? Auto annotation solves both of these common problems. The basic idea is that you can scan the sequence against a folder containing a […]

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Adding a primer to MacVector’s Primer Database.

  MacVector’s Primer Database tool makes it easy to store your lab’s regular primers. It allows you to save and retrieve primers from the Primer Database from the Primer3 and Quicktest Primer tools. You can also scan sequences for potential primer binding sites. The Primer Database will also store tails and allow you to specify […]

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RNASeq Expression Analysis with NGS data

If you have the Assembler module, MacVector can align millions of NGS reads from RNASeq experiments against large genomes and generate a coverage table displaying the relative expression levels of every gene in a genome. The key to this functionality is that you must have a reference genome with genes annotated as CDS or gene […]

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A whole new way to design primers with MacVector’s Quicktest Primer

QuickTest Primer completely changes the way primers can be designed on a computer. It simplifies primer design by showing your primer and its statistics in realtime. Does your primer have a hairpin? Nudge it along your template until the hairpin goes? Want to add a restriction site? Then add one and again nudge your primer […]

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