You can specify a group of sequences to add and then use filtering options to only add a subset of those to the project.
To add only sequences that meet filtering thresholds:
Open the filter dialog by doing any of the following:
- From the Welcome screen, select New Project on the left and Filter and align sequences on the right.
- Within any project, choose File > Add Sequences with Filter.
- Within any project, press the black triangle to the right of the Add Sequences to Project tool (
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) and choose Add Sequences with Filter.
) and choose Add Sequences with Filter.- After searching NCBI’s BLAST or Entrez databases, press the Filter results tool (
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) in the header above the Table view and then choose Filter.
) in the header above the
To set up the filters:
- If the Choose Sequences to Add dialog appears, select one or more sequences or a folder of sequences and click Open. This step is skipped if you are filtering search results, as MegAlign Pro will be using the sequence matches from the table.
- The Filter or Filter Sequences dialog opens. Press the <select> drop-down menu to choose from among some of the filter types below. Available options depend on the circumstances under which you accessed the filter dialog.
| Filter type | Filters sequences to allow only sequences… |
|---|---|
| Accession | Matching a particular Accession number. |
| Ambiguous residues | With more or less than the desired number/percent of ambiguous residues. |
| % Coverage | Where a specified portion of that sequence aligns to a match in the database. Example: Query has 596 bases, of which 565 align to a match in the NCBI database. %Coverage = 565/596 = 95%. |
| Description | Whose definition matches NCBI “Definition” field text. |
| % Identity | Where a specified percentage of bases align to a match in the database. (NCBI definition). Example: Query has 565 bases that align to the match and 3 bases that don’t match. %Identity = 562/565 = 99.5%. |
| Score | Meeting the similarity score criteria for the match. (See the NCBI definition for raw score). In general, a higher score denotes a better match. |
| E-value | That are not likely to match only coincidentally. (See the NCBI definition for E value). In general, a lower score denotes a better match. |
| Length | Matching a specified length in base pairs. |
| Organism | Matching a specified species name. |
| Probability | Meeting criteria based on probability of inclusion. |
| Sequence | Having a particular string of amino acids or nucleotides, with options to set the maximum number of mismatches or specify that the string can be found on either strand. |
| Sequence length | Shorter or longer than a specified length. |
| Sequence name | Having/lacking a certain string of letters/numbers in their names. Wildcards are supported. |
| Sequence number | Including only every ‘n’ number of sequences between two specified sequences, where ‘n’ is entered as the Interval. |
- A variety of text or number boxes and additional drop-down menus will populate to the right of your selection. Enter the desired criteria for that filter row.
- To add another filter row, press the plus icon (
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). To delete a filter row, press the minus icon (![]()
). The image below shows an example with two filter rows.
![]()
). To delete a filter row, press the minus icon (
). The image below shows an example with two filter rows. 
- Once you have set up all desired filter rows, go to the top of the dialog and choose whether to Match all of the following or Match any of the following queries.
- After you finish setting up filters, do any of the following:
- To apply the filters and open the sequences that met the criteria, press Apply or Filter.
- To add all sequences without filtering, press Don’t Filter. This option is not available when filtering BLAST or Entrez matches.
- To clear all filters and start over, press Clear or Clear Filter in the top right of the popup.
- To exit the dialog without filtering, press Cancel.
- To apply the filters and open the sequences that met the criteria, press Apply or Filter.
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