SnapGene Viewer is a program specifically designed for molecular biologists to help them create, annotate, and print DNA sequence files. The utility supports various file formats, provides you with many editing options, and works 100%.
You have access to a sample file which you can analyze and alter the options for every built-in element. Afterward, you can create or import DNA sequence files, annotate them with just a few clicks, and immediately export or print the results.
A feature that's currently missing from the program is the access to an integrated help manual which might come in handy to people who are new to this type of utilities. Instead, you need to go to the homepage of the developer every time you need assistance while working with SnapGene Viewer.
Another thing you need to consider before downloading and installing this tool on your PC is that the developer provides you with another program that brings you more features (simulation, alignment with other sequences, history overview, etc.). However, the utility in question comes with a price.
In conclusion, it's up to you to decide, based on your needs and budget, if it's worth installing SnapGene Viewer on your PC or try another solution.
v5.0 [Oct 24, 2019]
New Functionality:
- Added tools for pairwise alignment of DNA and protein sequences.
- Added interfaces for simulating directional and blunt TOPO® cloning.
- Provided support for customizing the background window color.
- Added the ability to drag out and view non-aligned ends of aligned sequences.
- Added the ability to display feature translations in lowercase.
- Enabled alignments to be constrained to a designated strand or region of the reference DNA sequence.
- Added the ability to import sequences directly from Ensembl.
- Enabled the calculation and saving of codon frequencies for one or more translated features.
- Enabled feature visibility to be toggled by feature type.
- Added the option to trim low-quality ends when importing sequence traces for contig assembly or multiple sequence alignment.
- Enabled an aligned cDNA to be used to annotate a feature with exons and introns.
- Added support for opening DNASIS files.
- Enhanced BLAST support to provide all five options (blastn, blastx, tblastx, blastp, and tblastn).
- Updated the "Aligned Sequences" menu when viewing an alignment to a reference sequence, and added the following new commands: • Duplicate Selected Sequence(s) in New Window(s) • Remove All Sequences • Show/Hide Quality Data for Sequence Traces
- Added a control in Preferences to enable quality data for sequence traces to be shown by default when aligning to a reference DNA sequence.
- Enabled a selected portion of a multiple DNA alignment to be converted to a multiple protein alignment.
- Added a control for exporting selected files in a collection as a list in PDF or tab-separated format.
- Added a "Choose DNA Sequences..." button to the Simulate Agarose Gel dialog, as a shortcut for configuring multiple lanes.
- Enabled amino acid sequences to be copied as either 1- or 3-letter amino acid codes.
- Enabled the copying of selections that span multiple lines in pairwise or multiple alignment windows.
- Added the New England Biolabs "TriDye™ Ultra Low Range DNA Ladder".
Enhancements:
- Calculated the total length of the segments for a feature with gaps, with this information now displayed in Features view, feature dialogs, and feature tooltips.
- Reduced the width of the "Code Number" column in the collection interface by using an icon.
- Added the option to preserve a feature translation by adjusting its reading frame when exiting the Edit Feature dialog.
- Added an option in Preferences to display the MW of a selection in a protein file in Daltons.
- Added a notification if some of the input sequences were not included when assembling contigs.
- Added a keyboard shortcut for importing primers from a list.
- Relaxed a restriction that prohibited characters in primer names.
- Improved the detection of T7 promoter features.
- Improved import from NCBI to tolerate regions in which the left and right endpoints are swapped, and to recognize "c" as denoting the reverse complement.
- Added support for new genetic codes.
- Improved the algorithm for aligning to a reference DNA sequence.
- Improved the import of features from BED and GTF files generated by geneXplain.
- Enhanced the Vector NTI® database importer to recognize separators.
- Provided the version numbers of alignment programs (e.g., MUSCLE) in the user interface.
- Improved the visibility of selections and their endpoints in maps by including lines that extend below the DNA line.
- Enhanced the "Edit MW Markers List" dialog to support display of MW markers by supplier, and to enable one-step selection of all MW markers from a supplier.
- Dramatically improved scrolling performance in Features view for sequences with many features.
- Added commands to the Enzymes and Primers menus for pulling up the corresponding tabs in Preferences.
- Enhanced Properties view in protein windows to list both average and monoisotopic molecular weights.
- Made the alignment dialogs modeless to enable switching to other SnapGene windows.
- Improved the visibility of a Consensus selection in a multiple alignment window by extending blue lines down from each end of the selection.
