Sequencher/ AutoAssemble comparison

[Paul]

Olav, Hungnes, olavhung at idgonline.no wrote:
> 
> I'd like to know what you consider to be the pros and cons of
> ABI/Perkin-Elmer's AutoAssembler compared to Sequencher, which seems to
> score so highly in this forum.
> 
> We've got demos of both programs, and they seem to do more or less the
> same job.
> 
> Our raw data come mainly from an ABI 310.
> 
> Olav

Olav,

It used to be the pros and cons of both software packages went like
this:

Sequencher:
    Easy to use
    Extremely fast

AutoAssembler:
    Hard to use
    Extremely slow

But AutoAssembler has gone through vast improvements:

Sequencher:
    Still real easy to use
    Even faster

AutoAssembler:
    A little easier to use but keep the manual open
    As fast as Sequencher was on a Mac SE.

Your doing the best thing by trying the demos before you buy. Take as
many of your control runs as you can find or anything else that is the
same sequence but multiple runs. 100 to 1000 would be good. Take both
programs and build a consensus out of the runs and time them. After
building, go and view the chromatograms all lined up with each other and
edit the contig. Then there are all the little things that Sequencher
does that have no equivalent anywhere else. On the above contig open
"Motif" and type in three A's as a motif. Select green and then look at
the "Overview". A goofy example but you can see the possibilities.

hope this helps, Paul

Paul Morrison  D1030
Molecular Biology Core Facilities
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
44 Binney Street
Boston, MA 02115
p_morrison at dfci.harvard.edu
http://mbcf.dfci.harvard.edu
phone 617-632-3082
fax  617-632-4814

2ND ANNUAL ABRF DNA SEQUENCE RESEARCH COMMITTEE STUDY, published 4/8/97
http://www.medstv.unimelb.edu.au/ABRF/rescomreports.html