Welcome to the UCSC Genome Browser website. This site contains the reference sequence and working draft assemblies for a large collection of genomes. It also provides portals to the ENCODE and Neandertal projects.

We encourage you to explore these sequences with our tools. The Genome Browser zooms and scrolls over chromosomes, showing the work of annotators worldwide. The Gene Sorter shows expression, homology and other information on groups of genes that can be related in many ways. Blat quickly maps your sequence to the genome. The Table Browser provides convenient access to the underlying database. VisiGene lets you browse through a large collection of in situ mouse and frog images to examine expression patterns. Genome Graphs allows you to upload and display genome-wide data sets.

The UCSC Genome Browser is developed and maintained by the Genome Bioinformatics Group, a cross-departmental team within the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering (CBSE) at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). If you have feedback or questions concerning the tools or data on this website, feel free to contact us on our public mailing list.

To receive announcements of new genome assembly releases, new software features, updates and training seminars by email, subscribe to the genome-announce mailing list.

OpenHelix has released updated versions of two Genome Browser tutorial suites:

• UCSC Genome Browser: An Introduction
• UCSC Genome Browser: Custom Tracks and Table Browser

The OpenHelix website also provides UCSC tutorials on the Gene Sorter and VisiGene (UCSC Genome Browser: The Additional Tools), ENCODE Foundations, and the UCSC Archaeal Genome Browser.

Each suite contains an online, narrated tutorial that highlights and explains the features and functionality needed to use the UCSC tools effectively, and a collection of training materials that includes the PowerPoint slides used as a basis for the tutorial, a suggested script for the slides, slide handouts, and exercises. These materials, all of which are free, can be used as a reference for users or as a ready-made presentation for training others on the use of the Genome Browser.

For more information on the tutorials and OpenHelix, see the OpenHelix press release.

07 March 2012 - New Mouse Browser Available: We have released the latest Genome Browser for the December 2011 Mouse genome assembly produced by the Mouse Genome Reference Consortium (GRCm38, UCSC version mm10). Read more.

29 February 2012 - RGD Genes Available for rn4: We are pleased to announce the release of RGD Genes for rat (Baylor 3.4/rn4). Read more.

==> News Archives

The sequence and annotation data displayed in the Genome Browser are freely available for any use with the following conditions:

• Genome sequence data use restrictions are noted within the species sections on the Credits page.
• Some annotation tracks contributed by external collaborators contain proprietary data that have specific use restrictions. To check for restrictions associated with a particular genome assembly, review the database/README.txt file in the assembly's downloads directory.

The UCSC, Ensembl, and NCBI browser and annotation groups have established a common set of minimum requirements for public display of genome data made available after Spring 2009, described here.

The Genome Browser and Blat software are free for academic, nonprofit, and personal use. A license is required for commercial use. See the Licenses page for more information.

Program-driven use of this software is limited to a maximum of one hit every 15 seconds and no more than 5,000 hits per day.

For assistance with questions or problems regarding the UCSC Genome Browser software, database, genome assemblies, or release cycles, see the FAQ.