The 2024 Nucleic Acids Research database issue and the online molecular biology database collection

Area of Science:

• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Molecular Biology
• Genomics and Proteomics

Background:

• The 2024 Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) database issue features 180 papers covering new and updated biological databases.
• This includes 90 new databases and 83 updates to existing resources, alongside seven updates from databases published elsewhere.

Discussion:

• The issue highlights diverse databases such as NAKB for structural information, NMPFamsDB for prokaryotic protein families, and updates to AlphaFold Protein Structure Database.
• Key resources for metabolism (Reactome, Wikipathways, Metabolights), microbes (RefSeq, UNITE), viruses (ViralZone), and medical applications (COSMIC, Drugbank) are included.
• Genomics resources like Ensembl and UCSC Genome Browser, along with new plant-focused databases (OPIA, PlantPAD, SoyMD), are also featured.

Key Insights:

• The NAR Molecular Biology Database Collection has been significantly updated, now comprising 1959 databases after reviewing 1060 entries and adding 97 new resources.
• This comprehensive collection serves as a vital hub for biological data discovery and utilization.

Outlook:

• The continuous expansion and updating of biological databases in NAR underscore their critical role in advancing scientific discovery.
• Future efforts will likely focus on integrating diverse data types and improving accessibility for researchers worldwide.