What is GenBank?

GenBank ® is the NIH genetic sequence database, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences (Nucleic Acids Research, 2013 Jan;41(D1):D36-42). GenBank is part of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration, which comprises the DNA DataBank of Japan (DDBJ), the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), and GenBank at NCBI. These three organizations exchange data on a daily basis.

A GenBank release occurs every two months and is available from the ftp site. The release notes for the current version of GenBank provide detailed information about the release and notifications of upcoming changes to GenBank. Release notes for previous GenBank releases are also available. GenBank growth statistics for both the traditional GenBank divisions and the WGS division are available from each release. GenBank growth statistics for both the traditional GenBank divisions and the WGS division are available from each release.

An annotated sample GenBank record for a Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene demonstrates many of the features of the GenBank flat file format.

Access to GenBank

There are several ways to search and retrieve data from GenBank.

GenBank Data Usage

The GenBank database is designed to provide and encourage access within the scientific community to the most up-to-date and comprehensive DNA sequence information. Therefore, NCBI places no restrictions on the use or distribution of the GenBank data. However, some submitters may claim patent, copyright, or other intellectual property rights in all or a portion of the data they have submitted. NCBI is not in a position to assess the validity of such claims, and therefore cannot provide comment or unrestricted permission concerning the use, copying, or distribution of the information contained in GenBank.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/