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Biological Sciences: 03-201: Undergraduate Colloquium for Sophomores: NCBI Resources

A guide on how to use biological sciences databases for research

Search for a Gene Name in the NCBI Gene Database

NCBI Gene is a good starting place for using the NCBI Databases to find information on genes or genetic disorders.

Go to the free NCBI Gene Database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/) and search by gene or disorder name. You can also use the dropdown menu to switch to a different NCBI database to find bioinformatics information, for example nucleotide or protein sequences.

Hint: Be careful that you choose the correct record. There will often be many entries for a given gene or disorder for different organisms.

 

Information in the Gene Record

In the Gene record, you can a lot of bioinformatics information. Some highlights include:

  • summary information about the gene, including the organism
  • the nucleotide and protein sequences are found in the NCBI Reference Sequences (RefSeq) section of the record. Go to the Genomics subsection of NCBI Reference Sequence and click on GenBank to go to the record of the sequence data.
  • links to all of the research on this gene in PubMed in the Bibliography section