The Genome Data Viewer (GDV) is now the main genome browser at NCBI replacing the Map Viewer, our original genome browser. GDV is a modern genome browser with essential improvements over Map Viewer. These include sequence-level details and an automated update process that keeps up with the rapid pace of genome sequencing, assembly and annotation.

You can now explore more than 500 annotated genomes with GDV. The GDV home page  serves as a main access point for this large collection of organisms and assemblies. You can also rapidly link to the browser from NCBI resources such as Gene and Assembly. Here are some more advantages that GDV offers over the Map Viewer:

• It has the familiar look and feel of the Sequence Viewer display, long available on many NCBI resources.
• You can easily customize the display with tracks representing NCBI’s wide range of genomic data.
• GDV has more track options than Map Viewer plus Track Sets that load with a single click.
• You can display your own data from a variety of file formats alongside NCBI tracks through the ‘Your data’ function.
• You can share your displays with others or print publication-quality views.

See the GDV Help document  for more details on GDV’s powerful features.

Map Viewer retirement details

After the date of this announcement, we will not update the data in Map Viewer displays nor on the Map Viewer FTP area.  Please check the README file on the FTP area for the current files with equivalent data.  Map Viewer includes some non-sequence maps such as genetic, linkage or radiation hybrid maps that are not present in GDV. These non-sequence data from Map Viewer will remain on the FTP area after we remove the other Map Viewer files.

The following pages have more information that will help with the change to GDV:

• Constructing URLs for GDV
• Alternative sources for discontinued Map Viewer FTP content

The schedule in the table below should also help you prepare for these changes.

Thank you to all the users of Map Viewer for your support through the years. We welcome your feedback on your experience with the GDV genome browser. Please contact us with any comments, concerns or if you need further support with the transition from the Map Viewer to GDV.

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