VCMap For Mac

VCMap is a unique, easy to use application to aid your research with comparative genomics techniques.

A backbone map is the primary map that will serve as the anchor off of which all comparative maps loaded will locate their sequence.

For the backbone map, you must specify a single chromosome to be loaded at a time.

When other comparative maps are loaded on top of that backbone, they will load all chromosomes that have syntenic regions that fall on the single chromosome of the backbone map, usually from more than one chromosome.

When you load multiple maps from different species, all of the off-backbone maps are anchored relative to the single chromosome from the backbone map, often resulting in multiple chromosomes appearing for each off-backbone species.

The "Swap Backbone" feature of VCMap allows you to view the currently loaded maps from the opposite angle.

That is, when you swap backbones, you can choose a single chromosome from an off-backbone map to become the new backbone.

All of the currently loaded maps will still be loaded. However, these maps will now be anchored to a new, different backbone and therefore, different homologous regions from different chromosomes may be loaded as well. All of the maps will then change so that they are anchored to the new backbone map you have chosen.