New class value and qualifier in GenBank release 242.0 accommodate circular RNA molecules

GenBank release 242.0 (2/16/2021) is now available on the NCBI FTP site and through Entrez and BLAST. This release has 13.49 trillion bases and 2.34 billion records.

Growth between releases

During the 57 days between the close dates for GenBank Releases 241.0 and 242.0, the ‘traditional’ portion of GenBank grew by 53,287,389,099 base pairs and by 4,773,649 sequence records. During that same period, 65,699 records were updated. An average of 84,901 ‘traditional’ records were added and/or updated per day.

Between releases 241.0 and 242.0, the WGS component of GenBank grew by 439,874,781,594 base pairs and by 45,942,354 sequence records. During the same period, the TSA component of GenBank grew by 15,398,434,562 base pairs and by 16,753,622 Sequence records. Finally, the TLS component of GenBank grew by 597,613,549 base pairs and by 2,091,409 sequence records.

The total number of sequence data files increased by 164 with this release. The divisions are as follows:

  • BCT: 24 new files, now a total of 557
  • CON: 1 new file, now a total of 220
  • ENV: 1 new file, now a total of 64
  • INV: 72 new files, now a total of 204
  • PAT: 11 new files, now a total of 228
  • PLN: 17 new files, now a total of 622
  • PRI: 10 new files, now a total of 55
  • VRL: 4 new files, now a total of 49
  • VRT: 24 new files, now a total of 255

New /ncRNA_class value: circRNA

The allowed values for the /ncRNA_class qualifier have been extended to include “circRNA”, to accommodate circular RNA molecules.

New /circular_RNA qualifier

Complementing the “circRNA” ncRNA class, the new /circular_RNA qualifier is also now valid as of this GenBank Release 242.0 of February 2021.

More Information

For downloading purposes, please keep in mind that the uncompressed GenBank release 242.0 sequence data flatfiles require roughly 1642 GB. The ASN.1 data files require approximately 1006 GB.

More information about GenBank release 242.0 is available in the release notes, as well as in the README files in the GenBank and ASN.1 (ncbi-asn1) directories on FTP.

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