November 1, 2013 (Vol. 33, No. 19)
Rating:
Strong Points: Easy viewing options, great if downloading from GenBank
Weak Points: Tedious to build a plasmid from scratch
Platform:
iPad/iPhone
Cost:
Free
Summary:
If you find yourself regularly searching for and downloading plasmid sequences from GenBank, then you’ll really appreciate the convenience offered by the Plasmid.io app. This app allows you to organize and edit all of your plasmid sequences in one place (as well as request and share plasmids with colleagues, if you register for the free account). Users can add plasmids to their collection either from GenBank or can create them from scratch, although it is really quite tedious to build the plasmids oneself. It would be helpful if a future version of the app could allow users to import their own sequence files to expedite the “from scratch” option. Once a plasmid is in your collection, you can easily switch between viewing sequence features, the sequence itself, and restriction sites, all while displaying the map of the plasmid. Plasmid maps can be emailed as PDFs, or the sequence can be emailed in FASTA format. Mendeley users can also upload PDFs to their accounts.