Instructions for use:

• From any page begin a session by selecting the Analytics option in the top-level menu bar
• Build a list by selecting the taxonomic groups of interest and click on Get List.
• From the list that appears, select the taxa of interest.
  • (Keep in mind that this is a prototype, so try to avoid picking everything!)
• Click on the Show button
• If your selected set consists of fewer than 200 sequences, the entire heat map will appear on a single page. If the set contains more sequences, the page will be automatically divided and a multi-page display will appear. The first page is a key that shows how the heat map has been divided. The other pages each show one of the subsections of the entire heat map.
• Mouse-overs on the heat map will highlight sections of the map and the names of the taxa that are compared in the highlighted section are displayed in the upper right of the plot window.
• The buttons on the upper left of the plot window control the size of the heat map, and sub-section selection
• A scale bar to the right of the heat map relates the color gradient to evolutionary distances
• Use the tabs to navigate multipage heat maps and the browser Back button to return to a previous page
• More detailed instructions are available on the relevant pages.

Cautionary note:

Both the analytics and the Taxonomic Atlas use S-Plus Graphlets; an interactive graph that uses the java virtual machine on the client computer. Performance varies from one client to the next and is dependent on a variety of factors including the internet bandwidth, CPU speed and RAM, browser, and browser version. Prior to use, you should make sure that Java Virtual Machine Version 1.4 or later. We also find that the application performs best when using Internet Explorer Version 5 or later.