How do I align text that can be drawn over?

Question

I would like to take two lines of column-aligned text (double-stranded DNA data) and add some boxes around some of the text, and additional labels. I normally use tikz for this kind of figure, but I am having difficulties retaining the column-aligned text in tikz.

      ATTGGNAGCAGAACCCCATGCGCTGGCGCGGCTACGACAGCTAACTTGAGA...
...AGATAACNNTCGTCTTGGGGTACGCGACCGCGCCGATGCTNTCGATTGAAC

I have tried using a Verbatim (fancyvrb) and verbatim environment inside a tikz node, but this has compilation errors like this question.

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{fancyvrb}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}[fragile]
\frametitle{Duplicates}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \node[align=left]{
        \begin{Verbatim}
      ATTGGNAGCAGAACCCCATGCGCTGGCGCGGCTACGACAGCTAACTTGAGA...
...AGATAACNNTCGTCTTGGGGTACGCGACCGCGCCGATGCTNTCGATTGAAC
        \end{Verbatim}
    };
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.
l.4 \begin{Verbatim}

The question above is marked as a duplicate of a question whose answer indicates to use \Verb, which is not appropriate for my long strings.

I have also tried to use \texttt within a tikz node, but this does not align correctly.

\node[align=left]{
\texttt{      ATTGGNAGCAGAACCCCATGCGCTGGCGCGGCTACGACAGCTAACTTGAGA...}\\
\texttt{...AGATAACNNTCGTCTTGGGGTACGCGACCGCGCCGATGCTNTCGATTGAAC}
};

I have also considered using a tikz matrix, but this seems overly complicated with one node per letter.

Is there a relatively simple way of achieving the aligned text with drawing features?

Answer 1

I can't help you with the tikz overlays, but getting verbatim into the tikz node can be done with verbatimbox:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{verbatimbox}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}[fragile]
\frametitle{Duplicates}
\begin{verbbox}[\small]
      ATTGGNAGCAGAACCCCATGCGCTGGCGCGGCTACGACAGCTAACTTGAGA...
...AGATAACNNTCGTCTTGGGGTACGCGACCGCGCCGATGCTNTCGATTGAAC
\end{verbbox}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \node[align=left]{\theverbbox};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Perhaps a less efficient way to add bells and whistles, but one which I do know is a \stackinset:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{verbatimbox,stackengine,xcolor}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}[fragile]
\frametitle{Duplicates}
\begin{verbbox}[\small]
      ATTGGNAGCAGAACCCCATGCGCTGGCGCGGCTACGACAGCTAACTTGAGA...
...AGATAACNNTCGTCTTGGGGTACGCGACCGCGCCGATGCTNTCGATTGAAC
\end{verbbox}
\stackinset{l}{100pt}{c}{}{\textcolor{red}{\framebox(68,22){}}}{\theverbbox}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Answer 2

You also can put your text in a parbox and use one of the \seqsplit or \DNA commands, from the seqsplit and dnaseq packages:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{fancyvrb}
\usepackage{dnaseq, seqsplit}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}[fragile]
\frametitle{Duplicates}
\begin{tikzpicture}
 \node[align=left
 ]{\parbox{\linewidth}
 {\ttfamily\seqsplit{ATTGGNAGCAGAACCCCATGCGCTGGCGCGGCTACGACAGCTAACTTGAGA...
...AGATAACNNTCGTCTTGGGGTACGCGACCGCGCCGATGCTNTCGATTGAAC}

\DNA! ATTGGNAGCAGAACCCCATGCGCTGGCGCGGCTACGACAGCTAACTTGAGA...
...AGATAACNNTCGTCTTGGGGTACGCGACCGCGCCGATGCTNTCGATTGAAC! }
};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{frame}

\end{document}