BioinformaticsLesson 2 of 2 in the course Biological databases and phylogenetics

GenBank: Submissions, Records, and Critical Use

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

GenBank is a major public resource for biological sequence data. This lesson introduces what the database contains, who maintains it, how it developed, and how it has grown.

GenBank is an open-access, annotated collection of publicly available nucleotide sequences and their protein translations. Annotations provide information that helps users interpret a sequence, such as its biological context and features.

All flashcards

What is GenBank?
An open-access, annotated collection of public nucleotide sequences and their protein translations.
What information does an annotated sequence record combine?
Nucleotide sequence data and descriptive information about its biological context and features.
Where does NCBI sit institutionally?
NCBI is part of the National Library of Medicine, within the National Institutes of Health.
How did GenBank management shift from its origins?
Responsibilities moved in stages from Los Alamos National Laboratory to NCBI.
Why must GenBank statistics be interpreted with care?
Totals may count different measures or collections, including bases, records, traditional entries, and separately tracked data.

Quiz questions

  1. Where should raw reads generated by next-generation sequencing be deposited?Answer: In the Sequence Read Archive (SRA).
  2. What does an accession number provide for a GenBank record?Answer: A stable identifier for referring to and retrieving the record.
  3. What distinguishes Third Party Annotation (TPA) records from original sequence submissions?Answer: They publish annotations based on sequences already present in GenBank.
  4. Why can the absence of a voucher specimen make a species identification difficult to reassess?Answer: There may be no preserved specimen available for checking the original identification.
  5. What should researchers infer from the presence of a sequence record in GenBank?Answer: The record is useful evidence, but its identification and sequence may still need verification.

Based on the Wikipedia article GenBank, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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