PERFILS - A PROGRAM FOR THE QUANTITATIVE TREATMENT OF FOOTPRINTING DATA

PERFILS, a computer program written in Borland TurboPascal, performs q uantitative analysis of footprinting experiments using any IBM PC or c ompatible microcomputer. The program uses the height of the bands obta ined from densitometric scanning of footprinting autoradiographs to ca lculate a differential cleavage plot. Such a plot displays, on a logar ithmic scale, the difference of susceptibility of a DNA fragment to DN ase I, or any other cleaving agent, in the presence of any ligand vers us the sequence. PERFILS calculates the fractional cleavage values for control and ligand, giving a table of values for each internucleotidi c bond and rendering the differential cleavage plot in only a few seco nds.