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SummaryiCn3D (I-see-in-3D) is a web-based 3D molecular structure viewer focusing on the interactive structural analysis. It can simultaneously show 3D structure, 2D molecular contacts, and 1D protein and nucleotide sequences through an integrated sequence/annotation browser. Pre-defined and arbitrary molecular features can be selected in any of the 1D/2D/3D windows as sets of residues and these selections are synchronized dynamically in all displays. Biological annotations such as protein domains, single nucleotide variations, etc. can be shown as tracks in the 1D sequence/annotation browser. These customized displays can be shared with colleagues or publishers via a simple URL. iCn3D can display structure-structure alignment obtained from NCBI’s VAST+ service. It can also display the alignment of a sequence with a structure as identified by BLAST, and thus relate 3D structure to a large fraction of all known proteins. iCn3D can also display electron density maps or electron microscopy (EM) density maps, and export files for 3D printing. The following example URL exemplifies some of the 1D/2D/3D representations: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/icn3d/full.html?mmdbid=1TUP&showanno=1&show2d=1&showsets=1.Availability and implementationiCn3D is freely available to the public. Its source code is available at https://github.com/ncbi/icn3d.Supplementary informationUser instructions are available at Bioinformatics online

The National Center for Biotechnology Information has created the dbGaP public repository for individual-level phenotype, exposure, genotype and sequence data and the associations between them. dbGaP assigns stable, unique identifiers to studies and subsets of information from those studies, including documents, individual phenotypic variables, tables of trait data, sets of genotype data, computed phenotype-genotype associations, and groups of study subjects who have given similar consents for use of their data.

Ankylosing spondylitis is a common, highly heritable inflammatory arthritis affecting primarily the spine and pelvis. In addition to HLA-B*27 alleles, 12 loci have previously been identified that are associated with ankylosing spondylitis in populations of European ancestry, and 2 associated loci have been identified in Asians. In this study, we used the Illumina Immunochip microarray to perform a case-control association study involving 10,619 individuals with ankylosing spondylitis (cases) and 15,145 controls. We identified 13 new risk loci and 12 additional ankylosing spondylitis-associated haplotypes at 11 loci. Two ankylosing spondylitis-associated regions have now been identified encoding four aminopeptidases that are involved in peptide processing before major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I presentation. Protective variants at two of these loci are associated both with reduced aminopeptidase function and with MHC class I cell surface expression.

A key aspect of research in genetics is associating sequence variations with heritable phenotypes. The most common variations are single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which occur approximately once every 500–1000 bases in a large sample of aligned human sequence. Because SNPs are expected to facilitate large-scale association genetics studies, there has recently been great interest in SNP discovery and detection. In collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has established the dbSNP database (http://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/SNP) to serve as a central repository for molecular variation. Designed to serve as a general catalog of molecular variation to supplement GenBank (Benson et al. 1999) database submissions can include a broad range of molecular polymorphisms: single base nucleotide substitutions, short deletion and insertion polymorphisms, microsatellite markers, and polymorphic insertion elements such as retrotransposons. Although the name dbSNP is a slight misnomer given the variations represented, SNP polymorphisms are the largest class of variation in the database, and the name dbSNP, selected at the request of NHGRI, reflects this fact. For the sake of brevity, we elected to use the term SNP as a shorthand for “variation” in the database notation and documentation (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ SNP/get_html.cgi?whichHtml=how_to_ submit). Thus terms used in the documentation like “submitted SNP” or “reference SNP” refer to all classes of variation in the database and should be regarded as meaning “a submitted report of variation” and “a reference report of variation.” Furthermore, it should be noted that in serving its role as the variation complement to GenBank, dbSNP does not restrict submissions to only neutral polymorphisms. Submissions are welcome on all classes of simple molecular variation, including those that cause rare clinical phenotypes. Submissions to dbSNP come from a variety of sources including individual laboratories, collaborative polymorphism discovery efforts, large-scale genome sequencing centers, and private industry. The data collected range from the tightly focused characterization of particular genes to broadly sampled levels of variation from random genomic sequence. The distribution of reported marker density across the genome is thus expected to be mixed, with an expected minimum density of 1/3000 bases in regions of random genomic sequence, and local regions of higher density around well-characterized genes. Each variation submitted to dbSNP must have an identifier provided by the submitter (called a “local” identifier by dbSNP), and each is issued a unique identifier, formatted as an integer prefixed with ss (for submitted SNP), for example, ss334. An ss number is thus permanently associated with the submitter’s identifier, and it can be treated as a formal accession number by the scientific publishing community.

While high quality information regarding variation in genes is currently available in locus-specific or specialized mutation databases, the need remains for a general catalog of genome variation to address the large-scale sampling designs required by association studies, gene mapping, and evolutionary biology. In response to this need, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has established the dbSNP database http://ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/SNP/ to serve as a generalized, central variation database. Submissions to dbSNP will be integrated with other sources of information at NCBI such as GenBank, PubMed, LocusLink, and the Human Genome Project data, and the complete contents of dbSNP are available to the public via anonymous FTP. Hum Mutat 15:68-75, 2000. Published 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

In response to a need for a general catalog of genome variation to address the large-scale sampling designs required by association studies, gene mapping and evolutionary biology, the National Cancer for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has established the dbSNP database. Submissions to dbSNP will be integrated with other sources of information at NCBI such as GenBank, PubMed, LocusLink and the Human Genome Project data. The complete contents of dbSNP are available to the public at website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SNP . Submitted SNPs can also be downloaded via anonymous FTP at ftp://ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/snp/