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With the wide application of DNA sequencing technology, DNA sequences are still increasingly generated through the Sanger sequencing platform. SeqMan (in the LaserGene package) is an excellent program with an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) employed to assemble Sanger sequences into contigs. However, with increasing data size, larger sample sets and more sequenced loci make contig assemble complicated due to the considerable number of manual operations required to run SeqMan. Here, we present the 'autoSeqMan' software program, which can automatedly assemble contigs using SeqMan scripting language. There are two main modules available, namely, 'Classification' and 'Assembly'. Classification first undertakes preprocessing work, whereas Assembly generates a SeqMan script to consecutively assemble contigs for the classified files. Through comparison with manual operation, we showed that autoSeqMan saved substantial time in the preprocessing and assembly of Sanger sequences. We hope this tool will be useful for those with large sample sets to analyze, but with little programming experience. It is freely available at https://github.com/ Sun-Yanbo/autoSeqMan.

A computer software package called 'FasParser' was developed for manipulating sequence data. It can be used on personal computers to perform series of analyses, including counting and viewing differences between two sequences at both DNA and codon levels, identifying overlapping regions between two alignments, sorting of sequences according to their IDs or lengths, concatenating sequences of multiple loci for a particular set of samples, translating nucleotide sequences to amino acids, and constructing alignments in several different formats, as well as some extracting and filtrating of data for a particular FASTA file. Majority of these functions can be run in a batch mode, which is very useful for analyzing large data sets. This package can be used by a broad audience, and is designed for researchers that do not have programming experience in sequence analyses. The GUI version of FasParser can be downloaded from https://github.com/Sun-Yanbo/FasParser, free of charge.

BACKGROUND: Direct application of insect cadavers infected with entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) can successfully control target pest insects. Little is known about the effects of environmental factors (desiccation and temperature) on the production process for infective juveniles (IJ) in insects. RESULTS: We examined the effects of desiccation time and cold storage (6.7°C) on IJ production of the nematode Steinernemacarpocapsae in Galleriamellonella cadavers at 30.8 and 57% humidity. Under desiccation, the IJ yield in cadavers increased gradually and reached a maximum on day5. IJ yield gradually declined from day6 onwards and was almost zero by day15. In general, cold storage at 6.7°C caused negative effects on IJ production in desiccated cadavers. Approximately 56h post infection was the time at which nematodes were most sensitive to low temperatures during development in cadavers. Five-day desiccated cadavers generated higher mortality and more rapid death of Galleriamellonella larvae than using newly (day0) desiccated cadavers. CONCLUSION: This study describe methods of optimizing rearing techniques such as desiccation and cold storage to promote the mass production and application of EPN- infected host cadavers for the field control of insect pests. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.