As well as Scan for.. Missing Features that shows annotation on your sequences, you may have noticed extra CDS features annotated to your sequences. These are from the Scan for.. Open Reading Frames tool that automatically scans every DNA sequence window for open reading frames and displays the results in the Map tab.
It’s very useful, especially if you frequently receive blank sequences from colleagues, or you want to show quickly show coding frames in unannotated trace files you receive from your sequencing service. However, if you are working with richly annotated sequences, you may find these distracting.
It’s easy to turn off (and back on again). The tool is controlled in the MacVector | Preferences | Scan DNA pane, along with restriction enzyme sites and missing features. MacVector will remember this setting for all new sequences you open, until you turn it back on again.
The appearance of the ORFs can be controlled using the Options | Default Symbols menu item.
(Note: prior to MacVector 16 this tool was called Automatic ORF Annotation).
Future releases of MacVector will see more automatic annotation and visualization tools. For example MacVector 17 will show primer binding sites from your Primer Library. So if there’s something you’d like to see please email MacVector Support.