pLOT 1.0.12f Update

pLOT 1.0.12f is now up and requires the full installation and cannot simply be patched by copy and paste.  This update fixes a few bugs and introduces several new features that I’ve found useful in my own work.  The first is Primer Catagories.  When you open up the Primers window (Ctrl+P) you’ll notice there is a drop down box to assign a category to your primer.  You can select an existing category, type in a new one or leave it blank.  In the main window, if you click and hold the mouse button down on the button to toggle display of primer labels, a menu will appear with the categories of primers found in your sequence.  You can opt to select them all, none, or pick certain categories to display.  Hovering over a primer’s label will now include the category (if there is one) in the information.  Also, right clicking on restriction enzyme labels will now pop up an additional menu to allow you copy the restriction site sequence in your vector, which is handy for quickly obtaining the sequence for degenerate sites.  For asymmetric cutters, a “>>>” or “<<<” appears next to the name to indicate whether the site is 5′-3′ on the sense or antisense strand.

Figure 1.  pCR4 TOPO Vector

Figure 2. Long hold of the left mouse on the Toggle Primers Button to show menu

Figure 3. Vector map with Universal Sequencing Primers untoggled.

Figure 4. Editing the User.Dat file in MyDocuments/pLOT/Config as a tab delineated file.  Categories can be added in column F