This program computes, for a nucleic acid duplex, the enthalpy, the entropy and the melting temperature of the helix-coil transitions. Three types of hybridisation are possible: DNA/DNA, DNA/RNA, and RNA/RNA. The program first computes the hybridisation enthalpy and entropy (by the nearest-neighbor method by default but other models can be implemented). Then the melting temperature is computed. The set of thermodynamic parameters can be easely changed, for instance based on new experimental measurements. MELTING is a free software. Its source code is open, and you can get it for free. MELTING 4 is written in ISO C and MELTING 5 in Java. It can be compiled on any operating system. Some perl scripts are provided for MELTING 4 to show how melting can be used as a block to construct more ambitious tools.

The current stable version is v5.2. MELTING 5 has been rewritten from scratch in Java (1.5) and provides a large set of thermodynamic models to compute the enthalpy and entropy of several structures in the duplex: perfectly matching sequences, single mismatch, tandem mismatch, internal loop, single dangling end, second dangling end, long dangling end (only one to four poly A), single bulge loop, long bulge loop, inosine base (I), hydroxyadenine (A*), azobenzene (cis X_C and trans X_T), locked nucleic acids (Al, Gl, Tl, Cl). MELTING 5 can manage a fourth type of hybridization : 2-o-methyl RNA/RNA. A lot of new ion corrections are available for Sodium, Magnesium, Potassium, Tris concentrations. New approximative formulas are available and to take into account the magnesium, tris and potassium concentrations. Some formulas are also available to correct the melting temperature when DMSO and formamide are present. The MELTING predictions accuracy has been much improved in the 5 version. See the user manual for more information. MELTING5 can also be extended with new thermodynamic models. See the user manual for more information

• The MELTING 4.3.1 distribution contains the program sources, binaries for Linux 32 bits, Linux 64 bits, Windows and MacOS, a GUI interface written in Perl/Tk, a perl script to run MELTING on multiple sequences, another to run iteratively MELTING along a nucleic acid by sliding a window of a specified width, the full documentation in several formats (PDF, HTML), a bunch of thermodynamic data tables and a benchmark of experimentally measured Tm.
• The MELTING 5.2 distribution contains the JAR file of the program with some scripts to run directly the program on unix and Windows systems, the java source code, the Javadoc, the full documentation in several formats (PDF, HTML, PS, TXT, DVI), a bunch of thermodynamic data tables and examples of computed melting temperature in comparison to experimentally measured Tm.
• MELTING is licensed under the GNU General Public License. That limits your right to restrict the rights of others! In particular:
  • If you distribute MELTING, you have to distribute its sources as well, or add a reference to the present web-site in your documentation.
  • If you use MELTING source-code in a program, this program HAS TO BE released under the GNU General Public License.
  • If you use MELTING as an invisible module of your program, behind a common interface, this program HAS TO BE released under the GNU General Public License.
• WWW interface for MELTING 4.3 at the EBI. <== provisionally unvailable for maintenance. Alternatively, using executable programs provided in the MELTING 5.2 distribution.
• SOAP Server providing programmatic access to our implementation of MELTING over the web.
• MELTING 5.2 user guide.
• MELTING 5.2 developer guide.
• MELTING 4.3 user manual.
• Sourceforge project.
• Google group devoted to MELTING.
• Debian packages melting.
• Ubuntu packages melting.
• melting5jars, An R package wrapper for MELTING 5 jars.
• rmelting, a Bioconductor package.

If you use this program, please quote:

Le Novère N. (2001). MELTING, computing the melting temperature of nucleic acid duplex. Bioinformatics, 17: 1226-1227. doi:
(PDF version)

Dumousseau M., Rodriguez N., Juty N., Le Novère N. (2012) MELTING, a flexible platform to predict the melting temperatures of nucleic acids. BMC Bioinformatics, 13: 101. doi:
(PDF version)

Software tools using MELTING 4

• OpenPrimeR
• OligoDB [discontinued]
• SOL [discontinued]
• SEPON [discontinued]
• siRNA [discontinued]

In addition, MELTING formed the basis of the BioPython MeltingTemp package.

Tell-us if we missed any.

Authors: Nicolas Le Novère, Marine Dumousseau, Nicolas Rodriguez, Piero Dalle Pezze, W John Gowers.