This is a WWW server for multiple alignment of protein and nucleic acid sequences using DIALIGN with user-defined anchor points.
Alignments can be created either fully automatically or by using a list of user-defined constraints. By specifying such anchor points, the user can force the program to align selected segments of the sequences to each other. The remaining parts of the sequences are then aligned automatically, respecting the constraints imposed by the selected anchor points.
An anchor point consists of a pair of equal-length segments from different input sequences that are to be aligned. An online manual explains all features of the anchored alignment procedure. Our method is described in
Please note that the present server is designed for protein and nucleotide sequences of moderate length (up to a few kb). For alignment of larger genomic sequences, we offer a specialized WWW server using the integrated CHAOS/DIALIGN software described by Brudno et al. (2004), Nucleic Acids Res. 32, W41-W44.
The program source code is available for download.