We have a curated set of ribosomal RNA (rRNA)  reference sequences (Targeted Loci) with verifiable organism sources and current names. This set is critical for correctly identifying and classifying prokaryotic (bacteria and archaea) and fungal samples (Table 1). To provide easy access to these sequences, we recently added a separate rRNA/ITS databases section on the nucleotide BLAST page for these targeted sequences that makes it convenient to quickly identify source organisms (Figure 1)

Database	BioProjects	Sequences
16S ribosomal RNA (Bacteria and Archaea)	PRJNA33317 , PRJNA33175	20,845
18S ribosomal RNA sequences (SSU) from Fungi type and reference material	PRJNA39195	2,337
28S ribosomal RNA sequences (LSU) from Fungi type and reference material	PRJNA51803	5,185
Internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) from Fungi and Oomycete type and reference material	PRJNA177353, PRJNA362621	10,874

Table 1.  NCBI curated targeted rRNA sequences now available as BLAST databases. Continue reading “New ribosomal RNA BLAST databases available on the web BLAST service and for download” →