We just found out an annoying and potentially serious bug in MacMolly
sequence analysis package version 3.5.1 (the latest one, version 4 should
be out soon).
In the program Enter&List the command "Edit Reverse Complement" (this command
is not available prior version 3.5.) doesn't work correctly. If the
selection contains an odd number of nucleotides it forgets to convert the
middle one; e.g. if the original sequence is CCCCCCC, the "reverse complement"
command will change it to GGGCGGG! This holds for all sequences with an odd
number of nucleotides (e.g. 3, 21, 2001), but not with even numbers. This
problem does not occur when using the "File Save as reverse complementary"
command.
We've informed the authors at Soft Gene GmbH about this bug.
Here at the Meilahti Departments several PCR oligos were modified by this
bug. If you've ever used this command, you better check out your sequences!
-Heikki
Heikki Lehv{slaiho <Heikki.Lehvaslaiho at Helsinki.FI>
Meilahti Medical Departments, University of Helsinki
Haartmaninkatu 3, SF-00290 Helsinki, FINLAND
Phone: +358-0-434 6408 FAX: +358-0-434 6491
