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SGD Newsletter, December 2024

December 13, 2024

About this newsletter:
This is the December 2024 issue of the SGD newsletter. The goal of this newsletter is to inform SGD users about new features from SGD and to foster communication within the yeast community.

Contents

AlphaFold protein structures now on SGD protein pages

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We are thrilled to announce that we have now integrated AlphaFold protein structures into our protein pages! This cutting-edge addition provides detailed, high-accuracy 3D models of protein structures, offering invaluable insights into protein function and interactions. Researchers can now explore these comprehensive structural predictions directly within SGD, facilitating advanced studies in molecular biology and bioinformatics. Dive into the new AlphaFold protein structures and elevate your research with this powerful tool!

AlphaFold, developed by DeepMind, is an AI program that accurately predicts protein structures from amino acid sequences, enabling visualization of protein conformations.

The predicted structures can be accessed through the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and AlphaFold Protein Structure Database. Thanks to Kim Rutherford and Val Wood of Pombase for tips about adding AlphaFold structures to SGD.

YeastMine data available in AllianceMine

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Here at SGD we provide high-quality curated genomic, genetic, and molecular information on the genes and gene products of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In 2011, SGD implemented InterMine, an open-source data warehouse system with a sophisticated querying interface, to better meet the complex and diverse needs of researchers searching and comparing data, resulting in the creation of YeastMine.

YeastMine is a multifaceted search and retrieval environment that provides access to diverse data types. Searches can be initiated with a list of genes, a list of Gene Ontology terms, or lists of many other data types. The results from queries can be combined for further analysis and saved or downloaded in customizable file formats. Queries themselves can be customized by modifying predefined templates or by creating a new template to access a combination of specific data types.

In July 2024, YeastMine was discontinued due to ongoing cuts in funding at SGD. However, we have moved the YeastMine data into AllianceMine, hosted by the Alliance of Genome Resources, of which SGD is a founding member. You can even access lists like “ALL_Verified_Uncharacterized_Dubious_ORFs” through the AllianceMine Lists just as you could in the previous versions of YeastMine. Ensure any bookmarks to YeastMine have been updated to match the new URL: https://www.alliancegenome.org/bluegenes/alliancemine. User documentation for the new YeastMine interface is available from InterMine.

Help maintain your genomic databases! Sign open letter supporting funding for biodata resources

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The Global Biodata Coalition has an open letter campaign to show support for sustainable funding for biodata resources.

Please take a minute to read and sign- the form takes only seconds to fill out. Everyone – including students and postdocs, bioinformaticians and curators, PIs and directors – is invited to join those of us that have already added our signatures in support of the GBC. Find more information and sign at the GBC site.

Community wiki shutting down

As another casualty of decreased funding, SGD will no longer provide the Community Wiki. Some of the resources hosted on the wiki have been moved to our Help pages, the Alliance Community Forum, or remain available though the SGD downloads site. We thank all our past and current Community Wiki contributors, and invite the yeast community to join SGD on the Alliance Community forum.

SGD’s new GENETICS publication

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Saccharomyces Genome Database: Advances in Genome Annotation, Expanded Biochemical Pathways, and Other Key Enhancements has now been published in GENETICS and is available as an accepted manuscript. Check out the most recent updates at SGD, including the two most recent reference genome annotation updates, expanded biochemical pathways representation, changes to SGD search and data files, and other enhancements to the SGD website and user interface.

microPublications – Latest yeast papers

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​microPublication Biology is part of the emerging genre of rapidly-published research communications. microPublications publishes brief, novel findings, negative and/or reproduced results, and results which may initially lack a broader scientific narrative. Each article is peer-reviewed, assigned a DOI, and indexed through PubMed and PubMedCentral.

Consider microPubublications when you have a result that doesn’t necessarily fit into a larger story, but will be of value to others.

Latest yeast microPublications:

All yeast microPublications can be found in SGD.

Alliance of Genome Resources – Latest Release 7.4

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The Alliance of Genome Resources, a collaborative effort between SGD and other model organism databases (MODs), released version 7.4 in October 2024.

The 7.4.0 release includes ~2.5 million variants of clinical significance from ClinVar. The Alliance removed 400 million human variants from the search because their inclusion was hampering site performance. The removed variants are mostly of unknown or uncertain clinical significance. The Alliance has instead included over 2.5 million human variants of known clinical significance from ClinVar. This should speed up the performance of the search function and improve site stability. The Alliance will address inclusion of the other high throughput human variants in the future. More detailed information about the 7.4 Alliance release can be found in the release notes.

Give a Gift / Support SGD

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Budget cuts from NIH continue to strain SGD’s finances. Despite our efforts at reducing costs, we still have significant ongoing budgetary challenges. Donations are now critical for our work to continue.

Your generous gift to SGD will help us to continue providing essential information for your research and teaching efforts.

To contribute, please make checks payable to Stanford University, noting that “the funds should be used to support the Saccharomyces Genome Database project, under the direction of Drs. Sherlock and Cherry in the Department of Genetics, Stanford University.  Account : GHJKO, Genetics : WAZC.”

Thank you for your support!

Kindly send by mail to:

Development Services
PO Box 20466
Stanford, CA 94309

CONTACT US: sgd-helpdesk@lists.stanford.edu

Upcoming conferences and courses

Happy Holidays from SGD!

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We want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family, friends, and lab mates the best during the upcoming holidays. Stanford University will be closed for two weeks starting end of day Friday, December 20th, and reopening on Monday, January 6th, 2025. Although SGD staff members will be taking time off, the website will be up and running throughout the winter break, and we will resume responding to user requests and questions in the new year.

Note: If you wish to receive this newsletter by email, please contact the SGD Help Desk at sgd-helpdesk@lists.stanford.edu.

Categories: Newsletter