MacVector 10.6 and earlier and Lion

If you have upgraded to Lion and you’re running MacVector 10 to 10.6 (earlier versions will not run) then anytime MacVector displays an error message it will crash. MacVector 10.6 was developed before even Snow Leopard was released and is quite long in the tooth now. Why not take this opportunity to upgrade to MacVector 12? As well as a 25% discount (before the end of September) there’s a load of new features that will make you more productive, including some great features for cloning. Upgrading now will also include a free update to MacVector 12.5 which will be out in a month or so.

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Useful help resources for learning MacVector

MacVector is designed to be easy to use. However, there’s a great amount of functionality in there. So if you are new to using MacVector or you’ve recently upgraded from an older version then you might be interested to know that we have some downloadable resources to help you.

The first one, which we recommend all new users to read, is the short “Getting Started with MacVector 11” guide. This document is geared for those who already use MacVector and introduces you to the new functions and features from MacVector 9 onwards. It is still useful if you are not very familiar with any version of MacVector.

Down toward the bottom of the page you will also find some tutorials on specific tasks. For example here’s a great one on Auto Annotation.

We also have some short screencasts available on this page of our website:

You can also visit the MacVector forums where we welcome discussion. There’s some useful tips on there, and news of any updates we release:

You can also subscribe to our RSS feed to be kept updated on all MacVector news or follow us on Twitter.

Finally there’s a full PDF copy of our manual

 

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Are you teaching a Molecular Biology Course this year?

Many MacVector users don’t realize that we offer FREE licenses for teaching purposes. If you or your lab owns a license of MacVector 12 with a current maintenance contract, you are eligible. If you are teaching a course this year and are in the process of preparing your course content, consider using MacVector as a teaching tool. All we need is the course name and number, start and stop date of the course, and the number of seats needed. If you are interested in this, but your license is older, you can upgrade it at a fraction of the cost of a new license. You are then eligible for teaching licenses. Contact sales@macvector.com if you are interested.

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MacVector 12.0.5 is out

MacVector 12.0.5 is a cumulative patch release that fixes a few bugs in MacVector 12.0.4 and includes all the bug fixes since 12.0 was released. If you have a current maintenance contract with MacVector (as of Dec 1st 2010), you can download the updater for MacVector 12.0.5.

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Updated Gateway Restriction Enzyme file

Here’s an updated restriction enzyme file for Gateway cloning with MacVector.

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MacVector and upgrading to Lion.

The latest version of OS X, Lion, has been out for a few weeks and it’s a great operating system. MacVector 12 has been tested and although not yet officially supported, it works great..

Nonetheless even though we’ve not yet come across any issues we are committed to fixing bugs. So if you are running MacVector 12 and have already updated to Lion then please do not hesitate to email us or comment on this blog if you find a bug, even if it’s just a little niggle.

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If you are not running MacVector 12 then there are some issues. Lion does not include Rosetta and because of this if you are using MacVector 9.5 or earlier then this will definitely not work on Lion.

MacVector versions between 10, 10.5 and 10.6 may still work although these have not been tested yet. MacVector 11 and 11.1 appear to work although it is possible that there are issues.

So before you upgrade your Mac make sure you upgrade your copy of MacVector and discover why MacVector 12 is the best and easiest to use version of MacVector yet!

Why upgrade MacVector?

MacVector has always been designed to be the easiest sequence analysis application to use on the Mac. With the latest release MacVector’s strengths are:

Graphics: displaying feature rich annotated sequences with a sequence overview allowing you to see your full sequence at a glance

Subcloning: A point and click interface allows you to select RE sites, digest, then ligate into a vector with ease! Compatible sites are highlighted with a Klenow blunting tool if there are none. MacVector also supports Gateway and TOPO cloning.

Comparing sequences: You can align cDNA/mRNA/EST clones against genomic sequences, Blast your sequence, search and align against multiple sequences on your hard drive, generate dot plots and much more. Assemble reads against a template sequence with easy SNP analysis.

– Open your data from many sources: direct from Entrez, from Vector NTI databases, from many sequence formats (e.g. GenBank, EMBL, GCG etc) or from sequencing facility files in Fastq, ABI or SCF formats.

– Sequence Annotation: A wide array of algorithms combined with the drag and drop of results to your sequence makes it a quick process to annotate your blank sequence with features. Auto annotation lets you quickly annotate new sequences based on your own collection of curated sequences.

– Designing primers: Click on a feature in your sequence, run the analysis and get a ranked graphical list of the best primer pairs to amplify that feature. You can also design internal hybridisation primers for realtime PCR analysis with additional functions to check/design sequencing primers.

– Sequence assembly: there are tools to easily create de novo assemblies in a few steps or simply compare your sequencing results against the template of your new construct.

The cheapest time yet to upgrade

If all those features are not enough then to help you upgrade we are offering a discount on all upgrades. Upgrade before the end of September and we’ll give you a 25% discount on even very old copies of MacVector. This means you can upgrade to MacVector 12 for as little as $450*

To upgrade request a quote and enter LionUpgrade in the promotional code box

Remember all upgrades of MacVector also include 12 months of free upgrades. This means upgrading now means that you will receive MacVector 12.5 which is due for release later this year.

….and as well!

If you are not convinced about upgrading your copy of MacVector then if you request a quote by the end of August we’ll send you a mousepad to help you remember that which codon stands for Aspartate…..

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…and when we receive your order we’ll add a floatie for your water baths!

 

 

 

*For upgrading MacVector 8.1 or higher in the US. Please contact sales@macvector.com for other pricing.

 

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Designing primers that do not bind at multiple places in your template

The default settings for Primer3 do not actually check for whether a primer will bind at multiple places in the template. To turn this on use the PRIMER vs PRODUCT setting in the PRIMER BINDING tab (the Primer3 parameter is “PRIMER_MAX_TEMPLATE_MISPRIMING”). The default value is -1, which means do not check. Change this to 1 to start checking, or increase the number to increase stringency.

This should now find any duplicate alignments.

Incidentally an upcoming release will have a special “QuickPrimer” tool for checking such issues as well as the Primer3 tool.

Primer3 Primer2Product

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MacVector, Assembler and network licensing.

We recently changed the way that Assembler network licenses are shared out to make it easier for many users to share a single license. Previously an Assembler license was checked out whenever you loaded MacVector with Assembler.  However, now an Assembler license is only checked out when you start a new assembly project or open an assembly project. Thus leaving it free for one of your fellow users if they need Assembler. This means that a license can now be shared a lot easier than before.

Contact MacVector Sales if you are interested in adding Assembler to your license

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MacVector on OS X 10.7 Lion

Lion was released through the App Store earlier today.

Although MacVector has not gone through a full round of testing, our initial tests on development builds and the released version shows that there are no bugs, or at least no obvious ones!

Here’s the coolest feature of Lion, Mission Control.

Lion

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Updated Restriction Enzyme files

There are a few updated restriction enzyme files available for download.

This file contains the latest Gateway and TOPO sites, and this file is contains the Common Enzymes file together with the updated sites.

You can read about how to do Gateway cloning with MacVector here.

Incidentally you can select multiple sites for copying by drag-selecting, you just can’t use <SHIFT> – select or <COMMAND> – select in MacVector 12 and earlier. We’ve rewritten the Restriction Editor window for our upcoming MacVector 12.5 release and it now uses a standard OS X Cocoa TableView, so you get all the usual selection behaviour you’d expect in a normal list.

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