Turn an est cluster into a gene sequence

1. How do I add a sequence in MEGA?
2. Why would I need to build a multiple sequence alignment?

How do I add a sequence in MEGA?

Starting from the main MEGA window, select Align | Edit/Build Alignment from the launch bar. Select Create a new alignment and then select DNA. From the Alignment Explorer window, select Data | Open | Retrieve sequences from a file and select the “Chloroplast_Martin.

Why would I need to build a multiple sequence alignment?

3.2.

Multiple sequence alignment is a tool used to study closely related genes or proteins in order to find the evolutionary relationships between genes and to identify shared patterns among functionally or structurally related genes.