November 15, 2017 (Vol. 37, No. 20)
URL:
http://multalin.toulouse.inra.fr/multalin
Rating:
Strong Points: Easy to use, multiple sequence formats accepted
Weak Points: Fairly plain web interface
Summary:
The website may not be the sleekest (especially in today’s age of highly graphical, mobile-ready websites) but the online tool Multalin is easy to use, and it does its job—which is really all that matters in the end, right? Multalin is a multiple-sequence alignment tool for protein and nucleic acid sequences created by Florence Corpet. The website includes a detailed tutorial page, though the practical use of the tool is very easy. One simply enters one’s sequences into the data entry box using FASTA, EMBL-SwissProt, or Genbank formats and hits “start Multalign” to run the program with the default parameters. (Users have the option to tweak parameters related to alignment and data presentation.) The default output, which is generated quickly, is an easy-to-read alignment of the sequences. Overall, Multalin is a fast and easy tool for all of one’s sequence alignment needs.
