Extract text from DNA sequence files (CM5)
To convert CM5 DNA sequences to another format, you need SnapGene or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "DNA Sequence File" file type, you need software like SnapGene or a similar tool.
A .cm5 file stores biological sequence data, typically representing DNA, RNA, or protein sequences alongside annotations, primers, and cloning simulations. It is a staple file type in molecular biology laboratories for digital plasmid mapping.
Originally created as a Clone Manager file by Sci-Ed, these files are now overwhelmingly associated with SnapGene, a dominant software tool for molecular cloning. The global public repository for such sequence data is GenBank.
The .cm5 format is a closed, proprietary file type, which creates severe vendor lock-in. Researchers cannot easily share sequence data with colleagues who lack expensive, paid licenses for specialized bioinformatics software. Furthermore, web browsers and standard operating systems cannot parse the sequence maps natively, making remote collaboration highly frustrating. Standard online document converters fail entirely because the biological feature mapping data is encoded in a custom, non-standard structure.
The most practical workaround is to convert .cm5 files to open bioinformatics standards. Converting to GBK (GenBank) is highly recommended because it preserves sequence annotations, feature maps, and metadata. Alternatively, converting to FASTA is useful for extracting the raw text sequence data, but be aware that all visual maps, primers, and annotations will be permanently lost in the resulting file.
Because this is a proprietary format, it is inherently difficult to open or convert without the original software. Often, only the original application can properly read or export the complex biological data. However, just drag and drop your file onto convert.guru to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. Our analyzer will inspect the internal contents, and if our system detects a supported underlying or embedded text structure, viewing or partial data extraction may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your CM5 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted CM4, CM3 and CM1 files.
If you want to convert CM5 file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use SnapGene or similar software from the "Biological Sequence Data Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to CM5, try SnapGene or another comparable tool in the "Biological Sequence Data Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our CM5 converter.