Jun 11, 2013

The NCBI Reference Sequence Project (RefSeq) project is now producing a non-redundant set of sequences to serve as annotation reagents for bacterial genomes. This is to help reduce and control redundancy in the protein databases while maintaining information content in response to high volume sequencing and annotation of multiple isolates. These new protein records begin with the accession prefix ‘WP’ and are used represent each unique bacterial sequence in the RefSeq data.  These new proteins are independent of any particular bacterial genome and can be associated with more than one isolate, strain or species. Bacterial genomes will now be annotated using these WP proteins. Existing RefSeq bacterial sequences (YP and NP) accessions now point to the corresponding WP record, and WP records have replaced ZP accessions, which were formerly annotated on partially assembled whole genome shotgun genomes. Please see the Reference Sequence Announcement for further details and the plan for phasing in the implementation.

May 29, 2013

This is the place to get the latest information about NCBI, and feature stories about NCBI services and activities. The NCBI News site offers readers fast and integrated access to the most important news stories about announcements, changes, updates and improvements at NCBI.

May 13, 2013

A change in how people find information about genetic tests is imminent. On February 29, 2012, NIH's Genetic Testing Registry (GTR) was launched to provide access to a central repository for genetic testing information and to make it easier for clinicians to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of genetic tests. The GeneTests Laboratory Directory, long a source of information for clinicians, has been used by laboratories to seed information in GTR. NIH will no longer support the GeneTests website as of June 4, 2013. GeneReviews continues to be available through NCBI's Bookshelf and throughout GTR.