Register Your Genome Project Online at NCBI

NCBI builds a reference sequence, or RefSeq, for each complete genomic sequence in GenBank® as well as for contigs of incomplete genomes. These RefSeqs are used to integrate the genomic sequence with genomic and other data at NCBI to provide pre-computed analyses that allow researchers to uncover relationships between sequences from different organisms, and between a sequence and a biological function. In addition to the reference human genome, and other major eukaryotic genomes, Entrez Genomes includes sequence for complete viral, microbial, and organellar genomes representing a diverse group of model organisms, pathogens, and organisms of environmental importance. Since the utility of a genomic sequence to the research community increases dramatically when it is placed in the context of other genomic sequences, NCBI strongly encourages the submission of genomic data ranging from mapping information to complete chromosomal sequences with annotation.

NCBI is working in close collaboration with many sequencing centers to provide new and updated information about ongoing genome sequencing programs for organisms ranging from microbes to multicellular plants and animals. Sequencing centers can register a sequencing project with NCBI prior to the submission of any data registered. Sequencing projects may include those producing finished and unfinished genomic sequence, or Whole Genome Shotgun (WGS) sequence. For each registered project, a sequencing project page on the NCBI Genomes website is created that gives a description of the project, links out to genome-specific resources, and provides a focal point for the addition of links to NCBI resources, such as the Map Viewer and genomic BLAST. Sequencing centers are encouraged to begin submitting mapping and sequence data at the early stages of the project in order to make it available to the research community quickly.

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Figure 1: Views of the first Web page of the Genome Project submission form. The pulldown shows the four "sequence availability" options.

To make the registration of a sequencing project as simple as possible, NCBI has created an online form, shown in Figure 1, for the submission of project information. The form allows for the entry of general information such as the name of the organism to be sequenced, the name of the sequencing center, and the sequencing strategy to be used. In addition, the conditions under which the project data, including sequences, are to be submitted to NCBI can be specified. A project can be listed or unlisted, and may be listed without sequence data. Sequences may be held until publication, the default, released immediately, or made available for BLAST searches only. The form can also be used to set up an FTP site for the upload of data to NCBI, or to specify a URL to be used by NCBI for the download of project or sequence data. The Genome Project submission form along with links to detailed instructions for the submission of genomic sequence and annotations, can be found under "Submitting" in the sidebar of the Entrez Genomes page, or at:

Questions about genome project registration or genome submission can be addressed to the NCBI Genomes group at: