GenBank is the NIH genetic sequence database, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences. A five-page description is available. There are approximately 967,000,000 bases in 1,491,000 sequence records as of June 1997. As an example, you may view the record for the neurofibromatosis gene. The complete release notes for the current version of GenBank are available. A new release is made every two months. GenBank is part of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration, which is comprised of the DNA DataBank of Japan (DDBJ), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and GenBank at NCBI. These three organizations exchange data on a daily basis.
Many journals require submission of sequence information to a database prior to publication so that an accession number may appear in the paper. NCBI has a WWW form, called BankIt, for convenient and quick submission of sequence data. The beta-test version of Sequin, NCBI's new stand-alone submission software for MAC, PC, and UNIX platforms, is available by FTP. When using Sequin, the output files for direct submission should be sent to GenBank by electronic mail. Alternatively, the data files may be copied to a floppy disk and mailed to NCBI. Authorin, an older stand-alone program for MACs and PCs, can still be used to format your submission, although submitters are encouraged to switch to either BankIt or Sequin.
There are streamlined procedures available for batch submissions of sequences, such as EST and STS sequences.
Revisions or updates to GenBank entries can be made at any time and can be accepted as BankIt or Sequin files; on an electronic form; or as the text of an e-mail message. Be sure to give the accession number of the sequence to be updated in the subject line. Send it to:
update@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
GenBank is available for searching via several methods.
NCBI is continuously developing new tools and enhancing existing ones to improve both submission and access to GenBank. The easiest way to keep posted of these and other developments is to read the NCBI News, which is also available by free subscription.
