New & Noteworthy
Happy Holidays from SGD!
December 19, 2022
Stanford University will be closed for two weeks starting Wednesday, December 21, and will reopen on Wednesday, January 4, 2023. SGD staff members will be taking time off, but 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.
Categories: Announcements
Global Biodata Coalition selects SGD in first set of Global Core Biodata Resources
December 15, 2022
We are proud that SGD has been included in the first list of Global Core Biodata Resources (GCBRs) announced by the Global Biodata Coalition (GBC)! This collection of 37 resources comprises deposition databases which archive and preserve primary research data, and knowledgebases, such as SGD, that add value to research data through expert curation and annotation. The list is meant to highlight those data resources whose long term funding and sustainability is critical to life science and biomedical research worldwide.
GCBRs represent the most crucial resources within the global life science data community. SGD’s selection as a key global data resource recognizes that SGD is essential to the global research endeavor.
For more information regarding the Global Biodata Coalition, including a link to the full list of selected core biodata resources, please see the full press release from the GBC.
Categories: Announcements
Predicted 3D Structures of Yeast Complexes
January 20, 2022
In an exciting new paper, Humphreys et al. describe the use of deep-learning-based algorithms to predict structures of not only single proteins, but assemblies of proteins. The team used rapid RoseTTAFold combined with the more accurate AlphaFold to build structural models for 106 previously unidentified protein assemblies and 806 complexes that had not been structurally characterized. The complexes have up to five subunits and are involved in numerous critical roles in cell biology.
Go look for your own proteins of interest at the ModelArchive and search in the Home page. Also find the link on the resources section of the SGD Interaction and Protein pages.
Categories: Announcements, Data updates, Paper of the Week
Tags: protein complex, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, yeast protein assembly
Protein Complex Page Updates
December 01, 2021
SGD has updated our protein complex pages to have the same format as gene pages, with tabs across the top for each category of information, including a Summary page, a new Gene Ontology page, and a new Literature page for each complex. Just as we do for all of your favorite genes, Gene Ontology and Literature curation for complexes will be ongoing.
If you have any questions or feedback about the updates to our complex pages, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.
Categories: Announcements, Data updates, Website changes
Tags: protein complex, Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Updates to legacy gene names
November 05, 2021
SGD has long been the keeper of the official Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene nomenclature. Robert Mortimer handed over this responsibility to SGD in 1993 after maintaining the yeast genetic map and gene nomenclature for 30 years.
The accepted format for gene names in S. cerevisiae comprises three uppercase letters followed by a number. The letters typically signify a phrase (referred to as the “Name Description” in SGD) that provides information about a function, mutant phenotype, or process related to that gene, for example “ADE” for “ADEnine biosynthesis” or “CDC” for “Cell Division Cycle”. Gene names for many types of chromosomal features follow this basic format regardless of the type of feature named, whether an ORF, a tRNA, another type of non-coding RNA, an ARS, or a genetic locus. Some S. cerevisiae gene names that pre-date the current nomenclature standards do not conform to this format, such as MRLP38, RPL1A, and OM45.
A few historical gene names predate both the nomenclature standards and the database, and were less computer-friendly than more recent gene names, due to the presence of punctuation. SGD recently updated these gene names to be consistent with current standards and to be more software-friendly by removing punctuation. The old names for these four genes have been retained as aliases.
| ORF | Old gene name | New gene name |
|---|---|---|
| YGL234W | ADE5,7 | ADE57 |
| YER069W | ARG5,6 | ARG56 |
| YBR208C | DUR1,2 | DUR12 |
| YIL154C | IMP2′ | IMP21 |
Categories: Announcements, Data updates
Tags: gene nomenclature
BREWMOR Workshop: Preparing Undergraduate Students for Research Experiences
February 03, 2021
BREWMOR: Bridging Research and Education With Model ORganisms (formerly BREW) will be hosting a virtual workshop titled, “Preparing Undergraduate Students for Research Experiences,” on Friday February 19th, 2021 from 4 – 6:30 PM US Eastern time.
After a very successful virtual BREW (Bridging Research and Education Workshop) in July of 2020 as part of the TAGC meeting, a steering committee was formed to coordinate activities of the BREW community. The name of the community was changed to BREWMOR: Bridging Research and Education With Model ORganisms, to include model organisms beyond yeast.
A micro-BREWMOR event that will be held virtually on Friday February 19th, 2021 from 4-6:30 PM US Eastern time. The main purpose of the event is to provide a forum for social interactions and building a community for support and resource sharing. The theme of this micro-BREWMOR will be “Preparing Undergraduate Students for Research Experiences”. The workshop will include a session related to the event’s main theme and opportunities to connect and collaborate with other undergraduate research mentors and teachers in multiple small breakout rooms focused on various topics.
Please register by February 8th at https://forms.gle/fdBCFxYjWuY38tSG6 . Registration is free.
We hope you can join us at the micro-BREWMOR!
https://brewmor.weebly.com/gatherings.html
Categories: Announcements
Apply Now for the 2021 Fungal Pathogen Genomics (Virtual) Course
January 21, 2021
Fungal Pathogen Genomics is an exciting several day long course that provides experimental biologists working on fungal organisms with hands-on experience in genomic-scale data analysis. Through a collaborative teaching effort between the web-based fungal data mining resources FungiDB, EnsemblFungi, PomBase, SGD, CGD, MycoCosm, and JGI, students will learn how to utilize the unique tools provided by each database, develop testable hypotheses, and analyze various ‘omics’ datasets across multiple databases.
Please note: Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 Fungal Pathogen Genomics course will be delivered in a virtual format.
Daily activities will include individual and group training exercises, supplementary lectures on bioinformatics techniques and tools used by various databases, and presentations by distinguished guest speakers covering the following topics:
- Comparative genomics, gene trees, whole-genome alignment
- Identification of orthologs and orthology-based inference
- Genome browsers and gene pages
- RNA-Seq analysis and visualization in VEuPathDB Galaxy
- Variant calling analysis and Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor (VEP) tool
- Development of advanced biologically relevant queries using FungiDB ‘search strategies’ and mining integrated datasets (proteomics, transcriptomics, phenotypes, etc.)
- Genetic interactions, virulence genes, secondary metabolites
- Overview of ontology structure, evidence, available tools, slimming and enrichment
- Introduction to annotation and curation of fungal genomes (e.g. Apollo in EnsemblFungi, FungiDB, and MycoCosm/JGI)
The application deadline for the Fungal Pathogen Genomics workshop to be held May 10-14, 2021 in virtual format is February 18, 2021.
Don’t miss out – apply now!
Categories: Announcements
Interactions Page Updates
November 06, 2020
SGD has made recent updates to our Gene Interactions Page for improved clarity. Previously, genetic and physical interaction annotations were combined in one table, but now these annotations are recorded in separate annotation tables. The menu in the top left corner can be used to view and navigate to each section of the Interactions page.
Additionally, alleles, SGA Scores, and P-values are now included for annotations from the global interactions paper by Costanzo M, et al. (2016).
Please be sure to watch our Interactions Page Updates tutorial video for a quick walk-through of the changes:
If you have any questions or feedback about the updates to our Interactions Pages, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.
Categories: Announcements, Data updates
Announcement from Jeremy Thorner
October 27, 2020
NOTICE: After 47 years at the University of California, Berkeley, the laboratory of Professor Jeremy Thorner will be closing permanently, as of 30 June 2021. After that date, there will be no way to distribute any strains, plasmids, enzymes, or antibodies generated during the course of the studies on Saccharomyces cerevisiae conducted by the Thorner laboratory over those many years.
Categories: Announcements
26th Anniversary of SGD Website
May 13, 2020
Happy Birthday to Us! May 8, 2020 marked the 26th anniversary of the day the SGD website first went live, bringing yeast genome information to all! In May 1994, the “World Wide Web” had only been in existence for about 22 months, but starting way back then, anyone (especially yeast researchers!) could easily access the “SacchDB” database from our old server “genome-www.stanford.edu” to find information on our favorite model organism, the budding yeast. We’ve grown a lot since then, and have even migrated to the cloud! But as always, we’d like to express our gratitude to all of our users, collaborators, advisors, staff, and anyone else who has supported SGD over the last 26 years. Without such a great community behind us, SGD would not be the fantastic resource it is today.
The SGD Team zoomed in to celebrate the anniversary with cupcakes and fuzzy budders:
“26 years and still your best bud!” #APOYG!
Categories: Announcements