GenBank

The GenBank(R) sequence database incorporates publicly available DNA sequen ces of >55 000 different organisms, primarily through direct submission of sequence data from individual laboratories and large-scale sequencing proje cts. Most submissions are made using the Banklt (Web) or Sequin programs an d accession numbers are assigned by GenBank staff upon receipt. Data exchan ge with the EMBL Data Library and the DNA Data Bank of Japan helps ensure c omprehensive worldwide coverage. GenBank data is accessible through NCBI's integrated retrieval system, Entrez, which integrates data from the major D NA and protein sequence databases along with taxonomy, genome, mapping and protein structure information, plus the biomedical literature via PubMed. S equence similarity searching is provided by the BLAST family of programs. C omplete bimonthly releases and daily updates of the GenBank database are av ailable by FTP, NCBI also offers a wide range of WWW retrieval and analysis services based on GenBank data. The GenBank data-base and related resource s are freely accessible via the NCBI home page at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.g ov.