Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The Genomes OnLine Database (GOLD, http://www.genomesonline.org) is a comprehensive online resource to catalogue and monitor genetic studies worldwide. GOLD provides up-to-date status on complete and ongoing sequencing projects along with a broad array of curated metadata. Here we report version 5 (v.5) of the database. The newly designed database schema and web user interface supports several new features including the implementation of a four level (meta)genome project classification system and a simplified intuitive web interface to access reports and launch search tools. The database currently hosts information for about 19,200 studies, 56,000 Biosamples, 56,000 sequencing projects, and 39,400 analysis projects. More than just a catalogue of worldwide genome projects, GOLD is a manually curated, quality controlled metadata warehouse. The problems encountered in integrating disparate and varyingquality data into GOLD are briefly highlighted. GOLD fully supports and follows the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) Minimum Information standards.