New & Noteworthy

Adding a New Gene to the Reference Genome Annotation

April 23, 2026

SGD maintains the most up-to-date version of the complete genomic sequence of S. cerevisiae strain S288C. If your lab has characterized a gene or genomic feature that isn’t yet annotated, getting it added is a meaningful contribution. Here’s what SGD needs from you to do that:

Publicly Available Data

SGD only adds features based on published data. All coordinates, strand information, and sequence data must already be explicitly reported in a peer-reviewed publication. Depositing the sequence, including the genome sequence version used, in a public repository such as GenBank is also required.

What Should be Included in the Publication:

• Explicit chromosomal coordinates, including genome sequence version used— stated in the text or a supplemental table, not only inferred from a figure or visualization
• Strand orientation — sense (+) or antisense (–)
• Strain background — SGD is built on S288C; note if your data maps to a different strain such as SK1 or W303
• Feature type — protein-coding gene, ncRNA, pseudogene, regulatory region, etc.
• GenBank Accession — Accession number from GenBank to identify the feature

When to Reach Out

Genome annotation updates at SGD are released periodically rather than continuously. When a new feature is identified, it is added to the list of new features that will be reviewed for incorporation into the next update. There are three good moments to contact us at sgd-helpdesk@lists.stanford.edu:

Before publication — if your paper is in preparation or under review, reaching out early lets curators know to watch for it. They can review the manuscript details and be ready to act as soon as it is accepted and assigned a PMID.

At or after publication — once your paper is published and indexed in PubMed, contact us with the PMID and point curators to where the relevant data appear in the paper.

If your paper is already in SGD but the feature is missing — SGD has curated thousands of papers and may have captured some findings from a publication while missing others. If you notice that a gene from your own work hasn’t been annotated, let us know and we will revisit the paper.

Questions?

The SGD team is here to help! If you have questions about genome sequence annotations, please don’t hesitate to contact us at sgd-helpdesk@lists.stanford.edu.

Categories: Tutorial