Introducing RepliCanvas: a visual playground for DNA replication

For years, I have wanted a simple way to draw DNA replication without piecing together every strand, origin, and fork by hand. RepliCanvas grew out of that idea: a small, open-source side project and browser playground for drawing and animating DNA replication.

RepliCanvas allows you to place origins, shape replication bubbles, move individual forks, introduce strand breaks, and watch the molecule progress through S phase. DNA can be linear, circular, or drawn along a completely free-form path.

There are plenty of knobs to play with, including strand geometry, base-pair detail, colours, labels, contours, and fork transitions. The result can be exported as a PNG, SVG, or PDF, or rendered as an MP4 animation. Everything runs in the browser, with no installation required.

It may be handy for preparing a figure, illustrating a lecture, or simply playing with how a replication programme looks.

Try it

• Launch RepliCanvas: fberkemeier.github.io/RepliCanvas
• View the source on GitHub: github.com/fberkemeier/RepliCanvas