Fixpoints

With fixpoints, you can get full control over the alignment algorithm. The fixpoints are points on the sequences that are forced to align to each other.

Fixpoints are added to sequences or alignments before clicking "Create alignment". To add a fixpoint, open the sequence or alignment and:

        Select the region you want to use as a fixpoint | right-click the selection | Set alignment fixpoint here

This will add an annotation labeled "Fixpoint" to the sequence (see figure 21.6). Use this procedure to add fixpoints to the other sequence(s) that should be forced to align to each other.

Image addFixpoints
Figure 21.6: Adding a fixpoint to a sequence in an existing alignment. At the top you can see a fixpoint that has already been added.

When you click "Create alignment" and go to Step 2, check Use fixpoints in order to force the alignment algorithm to align the fixpoints in the selected sequences to each other.

In figure 21.7 the result of an alignment using fixpoints is illustrated.

Image alignmentWithFixpoints
Figure 21.7: Realigning using fixpoints. In the top view, fixpoints have been added to two of the sequences. In the view below, the alignment has been realigned using the fixpoints. The three top sequences are very similar, and therefore they follow the one sequence (number two from the top) that has a fixpoint.

You can add multiple fixpoints, e.g. adding two fixpoints to the sequences that are aligned will force their first fixpoints to be aligned to each other, and their second fixpoints will also be aligned to each other.


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