MacVectorTip: Use Bowtie to remove contaminating reads prior to NGS Assembly

MacVector with Assembler can use Velvet and/or SPAdes for fast and memory efficient de novo NGS assembly of modest sized genomes (typically up to 40 Mbp or so) even on a laptop. One common task is to assemble NGS data from BAC clones.However, one problem that often arises is that the BAC DNA preparations may […]

Posted in Techniques | Also tagged , | Comments closed

Importing BAM files into an Assembly Project

You can import BAM files, containing reads mapped against a reference sequence, into a MacVector Assembly Project. As well as the BAM file(s) you will also need the original reference sequence the reads were mapped against. FASTA is fine, but an annotated reference is better for visualisation. The tool needed is called ADD CONTIG. This […]

Posted in Tips | Also tagged , | Comments closed

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 […]

Posted in Techniques, Tutorials | Also tagged , | Comments closed

Comparing multiple reference assemblies with MacVector 17

MacVector 17 has a greatly improved Assembly Projects manager, for better organization of multiple sequencing datasets, multiple references sequences and repeated jobs. Every time you run a new assembly job (either a reference assembly or de novo). A new job object is created in the Assembly Project window contains resulting contigs and any unaligned reads […]

Posted in Releases, Techniques, Tips | Also tagged , | Comments closed

Assemble bacterial genomes in minutes on your Mac laptop

MacVector with Assembler contains some remarkably powerful algorithms for assembling Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data. Not so long ago, you needed a powerful Linux server with lots of memory for de novo assembly of whole genomes. But with advances in the efficiency of algorithms and improvements in hardware, it is now possible to assemble quite […]

Posted in Tips | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Assembling sequencing data with MacVector and Assembler

MacVector has a software plugin called Assembler that integrates directly into the DNA sequence analysis toolkit and provides DNA sequence assembly functionality. Dealing with sequencing reads has never been easier. MacVector includes no less than five different assemblers just a few mouse clicks away from your sequencing reads. Phrap assembles Sanger sequencing reads or existing […]

Posted in Techniques, Tips | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

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 […]

Posted in Tutorials | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Reference assembly with MacVector and Assembler

MacVector has a plugin module called Assembler that integrates directly into the main package and provides sequence assembly functionality. Assembler was designed from the ground up to be easy to use and allow users to easily manage the large amount of data that sequencing generates nowadays. The Assembler interface is built around the Assembly Project […]

Posted in Techniques | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

How Assembler uses quality scores to create assemblies

A common problem with all types of sequence assembly is distinguishing between sequencing errors and true genomic variations. Quality scores are one way to help the algorithm identify if a variation is of high quality and therefore likely to be a SNP or a sequencing error. For Assembler trace files can be basecalled with Phred, […]

Posted in Algorithms, Tips | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

MacVector Talk: July 2014: Sequence assembly on the desktop with MacVector and Assembler.

Generating sequencing data is cheaper than it has ever been. However, with this increase in data has come a problem with easy analysis. Assembling 20 reads for your site directed mutagenesis project is easy. Why should dealing with 20 million reads of your bacterial genome be any harder? In our Summer newsletter we talk about […]

Posted in newsletter | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed