ContigMaker is a software tool to aid contig map construction. It is a Motif application running on UNIX workstations with the X Window System. ContigMaker is composed of five major components: map data manager, map analyzer, map viewer, map aid, and project manager. Contig-mapping data obtained by experiments are stored in a database of the map data manager. The stored data are then subjected to analysis by the map analyzer to generate contigs. ContigMaker supports the two strategies for contig construction: the STS (sequence-tagged sites) strategy and the MOF (mapping by oligonucleotide fingerprinting) strategy. The generated contigs are assembled into a contig map according to positions of landmarks falling on the contigs. ContigMaker allows a user to extract landmark information from a public genome database such as the GDB. The contig maps constructed are graphically drawn by the map viewer. The map aid provides miscellaneous small useful tools to finish a contig-mapping task. A repeated task ContigMaker performs can be automated by a macro created by the project manager. The macro will save time and effort for contig map construction.
