Welcome to the UCSC Genome Browser website. This site contains the reference sequence and working draft assemblies for a large collection of genomes. It also provides portals to the ENCODE and Neandertal projects.

WARNING: This is a test site. Data and tools here are under construction, have not been quality reviewed, and are subject to change at any time. For high-quality reviewed annotations on our production server, visit http://genome.ucsc.edu.

We encourage you to explore these sequences with our tools. The Genome Browser zooms and scrolls over chromosomes, showing the work of annotators worldwide. The Gene Sorter shows expression, homology and other information on groups of genes that can be related in many ways. Blat quickly maps your sequence to the genome. The Table Browser provides convenient access to the underlying database. VisiGene lets you browse through a large collection of in situ mouse and frog images to examine expression patterns. Genome Graphs allows you to upload and display genome-wide data sets.

The UCSC Genome Browser is developed and maintained by the Genome Bioinformatics Group, a cross-departmental team within the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering (CBSE) at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). If you have feedback or questions concerning the tools or data on this website, feel free to contact us on our public mailing list.

To receive announcements of new genome assembly releases, new software features, updates and training seminars by email, subscribe to the genome-announce mailing list.

We are pleased to announce the release of a Genome Browser for the February 2011 Tasmanian devil assembly, Sarcophilus harrisii (WTSI version Devil_refv7.0, UCSC version sarHar1). The Tasmanian devil, which is native to the island of Tasmania, is at risk of extinction due to a transmissible facial cancer. The devil population in Tasmania has declined by more than 80% since the first time the disease was observed 14 years ago. This draft assembly, created by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, was sequenced using Illumina reads. This completed genome is the first step towards finding genetic mutations in the transmissible cancer, which will help researchers understand the disease and its spread.

Bulk downloads of the sequence and annotation data are available via the Genome Browser FTP server or the Downloads page. The Tasmanian devil browser annotation tracks were generated by UCSC and collaborators worldwide. See the Credits page for a detailed list of the organizations and individuals who contributed to the success of this release.

06 July 2012 - hgText CGI To Be Retired

We are announcing the imminent retirement of the hgText CGI. hgText was the original version of the Table Browser, and was replaced by the new CGI, hgTables, in 2004. A very small number of our users are still accessing the database using the old hgText CGI. Beginning July 24, 2012, we will be removing the hgText CGI from our site. All users will need to use hgTables after that time.

19 June 2012 - Many New Assemblies Available in the Browser! With the abundance of new vertebrate assemblies available in GenBank, the UCSC Genome Browser team has streamlined its browser release pipeline in the effort to keep pace. Read more.

==> News Archives

The sequence and annotation data displayed in the Genome Browser are freely available for any use with the following conditions:

• Genome sequence data use restrictions are noted within the species sections on the Credits page.
• Some annotation tracks contributed by external collaborators contain proprietary data that have specific use restrictions. To check for restrictions associated with a particular genome assembly, review the database/README.txt file in the assembly's downloads directory.

The UCSC, Ensembl, and NCBI browser and annotation groups have established a common set of minimum requirements for public display of genome data made available after Spring 2009, described here.

The Genome Browser and Blat software are free for academic, nonprofit, and personal use. A license is required for commercial use. See the Licenses page for more information.

Program-driven use of this software is limited to a maximum of one hit every 15 seconds and no more than 5,000 hits per day.

For assistance with questions or problems regarding the UCSC Genome Browser software, database, genome assemblies, or release cycles, see the FAQ.