Load Gene List... (Control X)
Reads a file that associates each feature on the microarray with a gene name. MAGIC Tool requires you to have this file, called the gene list, in a particular format. Gene lists in MAGIC Tool format are available for downloading from the GCAT and MAGIC Tool web sites, and are included in the Sample Files, downloadable from the MAGIC Tool Website.

Often, non-MAGIC Tool formatted gene lists have additional information such as which features did not print, alternative names for the gene, etc. You can open your gene list to see what information it contains. If it contains information about the plates and wells for each gene, this is not useful information for MAGIC but was used to help the people who printed the chips to keep track of what they were doing during the manufacturing of the chips.

If you have a gene list that is not in MAGIC Tool format, you can use these instructions, and examples at http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/macampbell/ACS_MAGIC/genelists.html to create a gene list with the proper format.  First, open your gene list from inside Excel. Find the column that contains ORF names such as YBL023c or YAR002W, etc. Copy this ORF column and paste it in the first column (you may have to create a new column to hold this information). Next, remove all header rows, so that the first row in your file is the first gene in the list. Save the modified file as a tab-delimited text file, with a new name that ends with the suffix ".txt". This file is now a valid MAGIC Tool gene list. Although it takes a bit of manual labor to create this MAGIC gene list, it allows the user to quickly adapt to different microarray production styles. Later, you will learn how to import additional information about genes from commonly studied organisms.