dbSNP: the NCBI database of genetic variation

In response to a need for a general catalog of genome variation to address the large-scale sampling designs required by association studies, gene mapp ing and evolutionary biology, the National Center for Biotechnology informa tion (NCBI) has established the dbSNP database [S.T.Sherry, M.Ward and K,Si rotkin (1999) Genome Res., 9, 677-679]. Submissions to dbSNP will be integr ated with other sources of information at NCBI such as GenBank, PubMed, Loc usLink and the Human Genome Project data. The complete contents of dbSNP ar e available to the public at website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SNP. The complete contents of dbSNP can also be downloaded in multiple formats via a nonymous FTP at ftp:// ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/snp/.