MEGA 4: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Tool

MEGA (Molecular Evolutionary Genetic Analysis)

MEGA is an integrated tool for conducting automatic and manual sequence alignment, inferring phylogenetic trees, mining web-based databases, estimating rates of molecular evolution, and testing evolutionary hypotheses.

MEGA 4/ MEGA 5 has been tested on the following Microsoft Windows® operating systems:
Windows 95/98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Necessary step:

1. Go to http://www2.uwrf.edu/caseit/tutorialv5/download2.html, and follow the steps to register the free Case It software. You will then go to the download page. Select Case It v6, and save the compressed file to your desktop. Then, double-click on the zipped file and extract it to your desktop. A folder called 'Case It v6' will appear as shown below (the Case It executable is inside this folder, called 'Case It v6.exe').

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Optional steps: Installation of MEGA 4 to work in conjunction with Case It (necessary for tree-building).
2. Go to http://www.megasoftware.net/mega.html. Register the free MEGA 4 software by filling in your name and email address, select 'Download zip file only', and click the 'Download' button. The following message will appear. Save to your desktop, and the icon to the right will appear on your desktop.

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3. Right-click on the desktop icon and select 'Extract All...'. Extract the application to your desktop. An icon called 'setup.exe' will appear.

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4. Double-click on the 'setup.exe' icon, and install the installation package on your desktop.

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5. When the screen below appears, click the 'Change' button and navigate to your desktop to find the folder



Double-click to open the Case It v6 folder...


...and locate the folder MEGA that is inside the Case It v6 folder. Double-click on the MEGA folder to open it...


...and click OK to install the MEGA 4 application and folders

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6. To make sure that the MEGA 4 materials were installed correctly, go to your desktop and double-click on the Case It v6 folder to open it.

Double-click on the MEGA folder to open it...


...and you should see the MEGA4.exe application and 3 folders, as highlighted below. The other files were already present inside the MEGA folder of Case It - these files are necessary so that Case It will work directly with MEGA 4.