Figure 2

Composite screen shot of ArkMAP illustrating various interactive options. Map 1 has been zoomed to show bases 1-40M of a chicken ePCR map from ArkDB, the selected (green highlighted) region of this map has been used to retrieve the cognate gene-annotated assembly from ENSEMBL (map 2). As the mouse cursor is moved over the canvas it changes to reflect available actions for the underlying map object. Three versions of the cursor are shown here: cross hairs used to select regions on the axes, a double arrow used to stretch the selected map (2) and the open hand indicating that the map can be moved by mouse dragging. In addition the (hand) cursor has triggered display of a pop-up box displaying the coordinates of the blue-highlighted marker. Mouse clicking this selected marker would display a more detailed pop-up with further information and interaction options. The gene mappings from Ensembl include orientation information: ▲ forward or ▽ reverse transcribed gene. Alternate ‘Context Menus’ are shown for selected regions of each map. In both cases the user may zoom or project (duplicate) the selected map region. In the case of the ArkDB ePCR map the user may choose to import the cognate Ensembl chromosome (performed here), whilst for the Ensembl assembly map the user may import alternate release versions of the annotated assembly, import dbSNP variation maps (where available), search for regions of conserved synteny in a specified target species or choose to perform threshold filtering on any homology relationships for genes on this map.