SnapGene Version 8.1.0

SnapGene 8.1.0 was released on May 20, 2025.

Overview

SnapGene 8.1 updates Enzymes view to provide a streamlined UI consistent with other table views, includes numerous improvements to navigating files and data management, extends multi-file operations to any open file as well as Project search results, and adds a number of new coloring options that provide for enhanced visualization of your data.

Streamlined Interfaces

Easily identify key information with streamlined expandable rows in the refreshed Enzymes view which provides enhanced filtering options and more intuitive scrolling. Controls in the Secondary Structure view now float above the content and the structure list and statistics have been modernized.

Improved Search Results and Actions

Live search results update when files are added, renamed, modified or deleted, while improved selection behavior, filtering, and sorting options allow you to more easily identify and modify files.

Adding a Touch of Color

A number of new coloring options allow you to visualize residues and their associated chemical and transmembrane properties, locate buttons in the side toolbar, and switch between light and dark modes.

Navigation and Data Management

Efficiently navigate, annotate and manage your plasmids via the streamlined files and folders panel, which now enables viewing and performing bulk annotation and file transformations on all open sequence files.  Focus on Region to zoom into larger sequences.

Detailed Changes

• Enhanced Enzymes view with flexible modern streamlined UI and expandable rows
• Modernized controls, structure list, and statistics in the Secondary Structure view
• Easily navigate and manage all open files via the side Project and files panelAdded support for Select All and Copy menu actions in dialogs that support printing
• Synchronized file and folder panel selections with the currently focused file tab
• Added new options to choose whether to restore tabs or start fresh when SnapGene starts
• Annotate, simulate, edit and manage more plasmids and other files in bulk
• Streamlined the file and folder panel by moving buttons and other commands at the bottom to context menus
• Improved consistency with behaviour and context menu options for tabs, search results and folder panel
• Added option to hide file extensions
• Replaced the ‘Get Started’ button with a ‘Home’ button in the top bar
• Renamed Zoom controls to Focus on Region and restored button in Map and Sequence views for sequences greater than or equal to 10 Kb
• Added new keyboard shortcut for Focus on Region (Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+Z)
• Added an option to copy dragged files or folders in the file and folder panel by pressing Opt/Alt prior to clicking and dragging items.
• Improved filtering and sorting of file search results
• Automatically refresh search results when files are added, renamed, removed or modified in the open Project
• Annotate, edit or manage your plasmids and other files in bulk based on selected search results
• Improved selection behavior for search results
• Added keyboard support for search results, including Select All (Cmd / Crtrl+A), Home, End, Up-Arrow, Down-Arrow, PgUp, and PgDn
• Added option to use colored icons in the side toolbar
• Added options to color nucleotide sequences by Nucleotides and Purine/Pyrimadine
• Added options to color protein sequences by Chemical Properties (Zappo, Clustal X and DNASTAR) and Transmembrane Tendency (Zhao & London).
• Added option to highlight protein alignments based on Chemical Properties (DNASTAR)
• Fixed various coloring methods to properly handle degenerate residues
• Enabled easily switching between light and dark mode via preferences menu in the top bar
• Added actions to close tabs without saving to the tabs bar context menu and kebob button menus when pressing Alt / Opt
• You can now change the chosen enzyme set using the Display button
• Added support for using email sign in to activate SnapGene on Linux
  • Added Features to and Updated the Common Features database
  • Added the Tol2 system for genome engineering of vertebrate cells
  • Added the FRT3 variant of the FLP recombinase recognition site.
  • Added LOV2 and Zdk components of the LOVTRAP optogenetic system for induced protein dissociation
  • Added Protein C tag used in protein purification
  • Additional notes added to LexA and GAL4 features
  • Trimmed the Mouse Immunoglobulin k light chain signal peptide non-leader D codon and cleavage feature so that the feature truly matches the leader sequence and ends at the cleavage point
• Added the following MW markers
  • Agilent 100-3,000 bp DNA Ladder
  • Qiagen QX DNA Size Marker 100bp - 2.5kb Ladder
  • Sigma Aldrich DirectLoad™ Plus 1kb DNA Ladder
• Modernized controls in various message dialogs
• Modernized drop down menus and checkboxes in the Info panel
• Improved margins and spacing in the top toolbar
• Updated the Blast Selected DNA command to default to the newer core_nt database

Bug Fixes

• Restored option to print the Info panel
• Ensure tooltips are not shown partially off the screen
• Clear the file and folder panel selection when viewing file search results
• Fixed an issue with automatically selecting the default polymerase when using SnapGene in Japanese or Chinese
• Fixes issues with showing long enzyme set names in Enzymes view
• Fixed an issue where open windows such as Noncutters were sometimes duplicated in the Window menu
• Improved the name of the Project window in the Window menu if no document tab is active
• Fixed issues with resizing the windows
• Fixed an issue where a green plus indicator was shown when clicking and dragging items in the file and folder panel when they would be moved and not copied
• Fixed an issue where export formats were not listed when exporting multiple RNA files
• Fixed an issue with dragging Gel’s into the file and folder panel from the macOS finder, Windows explorer, or the desktop
• Fixed an issue with colors that made it impossible to read ambiguous bases in multiple sequence alignments
• Fixed various bugs when a document was closed while it was still being used in a dialog such as cloning, simulating an agarose gel, or computing an alignment
• Fixed a visual artifact when rendering row separators after sorting Features or Primers views
• Fixed an issue where tooltips would immediately disappear in Features and Primers views
• Fixed an issue where cloning was sometimes erroneously allowed to proceed after modifying the product name in a cloning dialog even when the fragment ends were not compatible
• Fixed an issue with rendering some buttons
• Fixed the text color when indicating files have been deleted when using Dark mode to ensure the message is visible
• Improved stability and fixed various memory leaks
• Fixed Find keyboard shortcut in Features and Primers views
• Ensure unsaved changes are consistently shown with a yellow dot
• Fixed an issue with showing the Display button at the top right of the Secondary Structure view
• Fixed an issue with updating menus to show standard and alternate actions when pressing and releasing the Alt/Opt key
• Fixed an issue that prevented selecting or showing tooltips for content shown below the side toolbar in Sequence view when scrolling horizontally
• Fixed the reading frame controls in the Remove Selected Enzyme Site dialog
• Fixed an issue with showing some alignments to a reference
• Fixed a bug where the options specified to align to only one strand or to a region of the reference sequence were ignored
• Fixed various issues with the zoom percentage, resizing the structure list, and other message shown when viewing a primer’s secondary structure
• Fixed an issue where moved, renamed, or deleted files continued to be shown in the Recent Files section of the Home screen
• Ensure the Project window is activated after selecting options for creating a new agarose gel
• Fixed an issue with copying and pasting multi-line text into other programs
• Ensure negative positions of annotations are properly displayed in Features and Primers views
• Fixed an issue where Import actions in the File menu indicated they were not unlocked when SnapGene had been activated
• Fixed an issue that prevented printing features in a multiple sequence alignment
• Selecting qualifier other annotation properties in Features or Primers view now clears the document selection to avoid ambiguous selections
• Fixed an issue where all open files instead of the visible document were used by default when simulating an agarose gel when not using a Project window
• Improved stability when changing MW markers when simulating an agarose gel
• Mark RNA files as having unsaved changes after computing the secondary structure
• Improved stability when importing GenBank files exported by VectorNTI
• Improved stability when importing a VectorNTI database
• Fixed an issue where an orphaned window about printing to PDF would be shown behind the print options dialog on Windows
• Improved stability when quitting with an unsaved agarose gel open
• Improved stability when changing sequence strandedness
• Preserve the division / sequence class when importing from GenBank
• Fixed an issue where documents were sometimes duplicates in the Dock menu on macOS
• Fixed an issue where the Select All and Copy commands in the Edit menu were not enabled when interacting with qualifiers and other annotation properties in Features and Primers views
• Fixed an issue with copying and pasting multi-line text into other programs
• Ensure negative positions of annotations are properly displayed in Features and Primers views
• Fixed an issue where Import actions in the File menu indicated they were not unlocked when SnapGene had been activated
• Fixed an issue that prevented printing features in a multiple sequence alignment
• Selecting qualifier other annotation properties in Features or Primers view now clears the document selection to avoid ambiguous selections
• Fixed an issue where all open files instead of the visible document were used by default when simulating an agarose gel when not using a Project window
• Improved stability when changing MW markers when simulating an agarose gel
• Mark RNA files as having unsaved changes after computing the secondary structure
• Improved stability when importing GenBank files exported by VectorNTI
• Improved stability when importing a VectorNTI database
• Fixed an issue where an orphaned window about printing to PDF would be shown behind the print options dialog on Windows
• Improved stability when quitting with an unsaved agarose gel open
• Improved stability when changing sequence strandedness
• Preserve the division / sequence class when importing from GenBank
• Fixed an issue where documents were sometimes duplicates in the Dock menu on macOS
• Fixed an issue where the Select All and Copy commands in the Edit menu were not enabled when interacting with qualifiers and other annotation properties in Features and Primers views
• Showing protein properties when there are multiple trailing stop codons
• Fixed an issue where sequences aligned to a reference did not line up correctly on some macOS systems because a vertical scrollbar was not shown
• Ensure file extensions are preserved when resurrecting an ancestral sequence
• Ensure topology is preserved when perform bulk operations on GenBank sequences
• Fixed a number of issues when interacting with unsaved Gel documents
• Fixed a crash that could occur when performing a find similar DNA sequence on a computer with only one CPU core
• Deselect all files when opening a New File tab
• Ensure accurate molecular weights are shown in the features tab
• Improved overall performance
• Fixed a bug that prevented changing the default author for newly created files
• Ensure the idle timeout is respected for shared licenses