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The Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD: http:// genome-www.stanford.edu/Saccharomyces/) has recently developed new resources to provide more complete information about proteins from the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The PDB Homologs page provides structural information from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) about yeast proteins and/or their homologs. SGD has also created a resource that utilizes the eMOTIF database for motif information about a given protein. A third new resource is the Protein Information page, which contains protein physical and chemical properties, such as molecular weight and hydropathicity scores, predicted from the translated ORF sequence.

The Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD) resources, ranging from genetic and physical maps to genome-wide analysis tools, reflect the scientific progress in identifying genes and their functions over the last decade. As emphasis shifts from identification of the genes to identification of the role of their gene products in the cell, SGD seeks to provide its users with annotations that will allow relationships to be made between gene products, both within Saccharomyces cerevisiae and across species. To this end, SGD is annotating genes to the Gene Ontology (GO), a structured representation of biological knowledge that can be shared across species. The GO consists of three separate ontologies describing molecular function, biological process and cellular component. The goal is to use published information to associate each characterized S.cerevisiae gene product with one or more GO terms from each of the three ontologies. To be useful, this must be done in a manner that allows accurate associations based on experimental evidence, modifications to GO when necessary, and careful documentation of the annotations through evidence codes for given citations. Reaching this goal is an ongoing process at SGD. For information on the current progress of GO annotations at SGD and other participating databases, as well as a description of each of the three ontologies, please visit the GO Consortium page at http://www.geneontology.org. SGD gene associations to GO can be found by visiting our site at http:// genome-www.stanford.edu/Saccharomyces/.

Upon the completion of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genomic sequence in 1996 [Goffeau,A. et al. (1997) Nature, 387, 5], several creative and ambitious projects have been initiated to explore the functions of gene products or gene expression on a genome-wide scale. To help researchers take advantage of these projects, the Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD) has created two new tools, Function Junction and Expression Connection. Together, the tools form a central resource for querying multiple large-scale analysis projects for data about individual genes. Function Junction provides information from diverse projects that shed light on the role a gene product plays in the cell, while Expression Connection delivers information produced by the ever-increasing number of microarray projects. WWW access to SGD is available at genome-www.stanford.edu/Saccharomyces/.

The Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD) stores and organizes information about the nearly 6200 genes in the yeast genome. The information is organized around the ‘locus page’ and directs users to the detailed information they seek. SGD is endeavoring to integrate the existing information about yeast genes with the large volume of data generated by functional analyses that are beginning to appear in the literature and on web sites. New features will include searches of systematic analyses and Gene Summary Paragraphs that succinctly review the literature for each gene. In addition to current information, such as gene product and phenotype descriptions, the new locus page will also describe a gene product’s cellular process, function and localization using a controlled vocabulary developed in collaboration with two other model organism databases. We describe these developments in SGD through the newly reorganized locus page. The SGD is accessible via the WWW at http://genome-www. stanford. edu/Saccharomyces/