DNA Protein Translator and ORF Finder

Find open reading frames across all six frames, translate DNA or RNA with the NCBI Standard Code, and compute oligo melting temperature and GC content.

At a glance

Computes
Six-frame ORFs, protein translation, GC content, and melting temperature.
You supply
A DNA or RNA sequence, plus the mode and a minimum ORF length.
Use when
You have a raw sequence and need frames, a protein, or a primer property.
Assumes
The NCBI Standard Code, transl_table 1, with the alphabet detected or set by you.
Mode

Paste a coding DNA or RNA sequence. FASTA header lines and whitespace are stripped.

Sequence alphabet
Protein code

This version uses the NCBI Standard Code. Variant codes are documented.

All three forward frames and all three reverse-complement frames are always shown.

GC content

Paste a sequence

Standard genetic code, all six reading frames.

Unambiguous bases
0
G plus C bases
0
Ambiguous bases
0

Ambiguous bases are excluded from the GC denominator.

Cleaned sequence

Enter a sequence.

Reverse complement

Enter a sequence.
Six reading frames
FrameOffsetCodonsProteinNotes
Selected frame detail: +1
CodonTripletAmino acid
Export

six-frame translation, ORF scan, Wallace and nearest-neighbor Tm, GC content How?

How this is calculated

The input is uppercased, FASTA header lines and whitespace are removed, and RNA U bases are converted to DNA T bases. Auto mode rejects a mixed T and U alphabet because the sequence cannot be classified cleanly.

Translate mode uses the NCBI Standard Code, transl_table 1. Each full codon is translated in the three forward frames and the three reverse-complement frames. Ambiguous codons are translated as X, trailing incomplete codons are omitted and reported, and stop codons remain visible as asterisks.

The ORF finder scans all six frames, opening at a start codon (ATG by default, optionally GTG or TTG) and closing at the first in-frame stop, reporting the longest open reading frame per stop. Length includes the stop codon; coordinates are 1-based on the plus strand, and a reverse-strand ORF reads start greater than end. The minimum length defaults to 75 nt and is adjustable.

Melting temperature uses the Wallace 2 plus 4 rule below 14 nt and the SantaLucia 1998 nearest-neighbor model at 14 nt and up, with adjustable sodium and oligo concentration and a stated salt correction. The active model and its valid length range are shown. Tm mode takes an unambiguous DNA A, C, G, and T oligo; RNA duplex melting uses different nearest-neighbor parameters, so RNA is rejected. GC content is reported as G plus C over the unambiguous bases, available on its own as GC content mode.

Formula: six-frame translation, ORF scan, Wallace and nearest-neighbor Tm, GC content

DNA to mRNA

Transcription depends on which strand is pasted. For a coding strand, mRNA is the same sequence with T replaced by U. For a template strand, mRNA is the reverse complement with T replaced by U. Thus coding ATGGCC gives AUGGCC, while template ATGGCC gives GGCCAU. Output is reported in the 5 prime to 3 prime direction after FASTA headers and whitespace are removed.

Reverse complement

The reverse complement is the opposite strand written in its own 5 prime to 3 prime direction. It is useful when checking a reverse primer, reading a sequence obtained from the opposite strand, or comparing an oligo in the other orientation. Complementing without reversing gives a string in the wrong direction for ordinary comparison.

GC content

GC content is G plus C divided by the unambiguous bases. Ambiguity codes remain visible and are excluded from the denominator rather than treated as mismatches. This page owns operations on a supplied sequence rather than a standalone single-codon reference table.

Sources

  1. NCBI Genetic Codes. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved .
  2. NCBI ORFfinder. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved .
  3. SantaLucia 1998, PNAS 95:1460 (unified nearest-neighbor parameters). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved .
  4. Wallace et al. 1979, Nucleic Acids Research 6:3543. Nucleic Acids Research. Retrieved .

Method last reviewed