UMAP Logo

UMAP Viewer — How To Use

Keep this page open in a separate browser window for quick reference.

Contents

1. Loading a Dataset

▲ top

Use the Dataset dropdown at the top of the page to choose a UMAP projection. Each dataset represents a different set of organisms and/or distance metric. Points load in chunks; a progress indicator appears while loading. Once loaded, each dot is one organism.

2. Navigation Modes

▲ top

Two modes control what a mouse drag does on the plot:

Switch modes with the Select / Zoom buttons in the toolbar, or use Select Visible after zooming to grab all visible organisms at once.

Keep previous selections — when checked, a new box-drag adds to the existing selection rather than replacing it. Useful for combining two separate regions.

3. Selecting Organisms

▲ top

Drag on the plot in Select mode to draw a selection box. All organisms inside are highlighted and listed in the right panel.

Tip: Check Keep previous selections to accumulate organisms from multiple drag operations before opening an analysis tool.

4. Pinning Organisms

▲ top

Pinning lets you lock specific organisms into the active set so they survive a new box-drag that would otherwise replace your selection.

How to pin

Each organism in the selection list has a small checkbox to its left. Checking it pins that organism — it will stay in the list (shown with a blue tint) even after you drag-select a new region.

The active set

The active set is always currently selected + pinned (duplicates removed). The count line reads N selected + M pinned when both are present. All analysis tools (Profiles, Trees, T-Test, Clusters) operate on the full active set.

Typical workflow

Tip: Use Pinned Profiles when you want a heatmap of only your carefully curated pinned organisms, ignoring the current box-selection entirely.

5. Dot Filter (Show Dots)

▲ top

The Show dots radio buttons (below the main toolbar) let you focus the plot by hiding irrelevant organisms:

The filter is persistent: it stays active as you drag new selections. Switching to Selected only gives you a live-focus view — as you drag, only the newly selected dots appear against an empty background.

The dot filter is automatically disabled (hidden) when Show Taxonomy is turned on, and restored when you turn it off.

Tip: Pinned + Selected is useful after you have assembled a curated pinned set and want to use box-drag to add candidates without being distracted by the full dataset.

6. View Profiles

▲ top

Opens the protein family heatmap for a set of organisms (maximum 100). Two buttons:

Both buttons open the heatmap in a new browser tab, so you can keep the plot open.

7. Analysis Tools

▲ top

These buttons appear in the lower toolbar when the active set meets the tool's size requirement. All tools open in a new tab and share a navigation bar so you can move between them.

ToolWhat it doesSize limit
View Profiles Pfam / CAZyme family heatmap 1 – 100 organisms
Make Trees Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree from profile distances 2 – 200 organisms
T-Test Welch's t-test: selected group vs. rest of dataset 2 – 500 organisms
Find Clusters DBSCAN clustering + per-cluster Pfam enrichment 10+ organisms
Compare Regions T-test between two user-drawn regions 2 – 500 per region

Compare Regions workflow

  1. Click Lock Region 1 with a region selected.
  2. Draw a second region on the plot.
  3. Click Run Comparison.
  4. Click Cancel Compare to return to normal selection mode.

8. Taxonomy Coloring

▲ top

Check Show Taxonomy to recolor dots by taxonomic group instead of their default dataset colors. Use the adjacent dropdown to choose the rank (Auto, Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus).

Auto picks a rank that produces readable color groupings given the current selection.

Taxonomy coloring temporarily disables the Show dots filter. When you uncheck Show Taxonomy, the filter is restored and re-applied.

▲ top

Organism search

Type a name or partial taxonomy string in the left search box. Results are matched client-side against the loaded dataset — no extra network request. Selecting a result highlights that organism on the plot and adds it to the selection list.

Pfam search

Type in the right search box to search by Pfam ID, name, or description (server-side). Selecting a Pfam result colors all organisms on the plot by how many copies of that family they carry, using a threshold you can adjust with the Min count filter that appears.

10. Keyboard Shortcuts

▲ top



v2.x @2026 UCLA