We are pleased to announce RNAcentral release 24, which features a major update to the tmRNA Website, improvements to our genome browser and updates to LitScan and LitSumm. LitSumm now generates summaries using GPT4. Read on for the details. Welcome tmRNA Website 2.0 Recently, the tmRNA Website has undergone two major changes. First, they have overhauled how they identify tmRNA sequences. They have provided a new dataset, which now provides RNAcentral 96,670 sequences, which are extensively annotated with functional features. For example: Show above is an example of Candidatus Gastranaerophi ..read more

We are pleased to announce RNAcentral release 23, featuring two new expert databases, MGnify and REDIportal, a new genome browser and a new lineage based search. We are also releasing LLM generated summaries of literature from our tool LitSumm. Welcome MGnify MGnify is a database of microbiome data. They provide a large collection of metagenomes assembled genomes (MAGs) from submitted and publicly accessible datasets. As part of their analysis pipelines, they use Rfam to identify ncRNAs. In this release we have imported ncRNAs from complete MAGs. This has created 135,924 new metagenome sequenc ..read more

We are pleased to announce RNAcentral release 22, featuring two new expert databases, EVlncRNAs and Ribocentre, a new visualisation, and updates to LitScan. Welcome EVlncRNAs EVlncRNAs is a database of experimentally validated long non-coding RNAs, curated from papers alongside their expression, interaction and association with disease. In release 22, we have imported the second version of the database, which expands on the original by manually curating almost 19,000 additional papers. You can explore their data here. Welcome Ribocentre Ribocentre aims to become a database of all natural ..read more

We are pleased to announce the release of R2DT version 1.3 that introduces constrained folding functionality as well as new and updated templates. Read on to find out more or head to GitHub or the RNAcentral web app to start using the new software.Constrained folding R2DT uses templates for predicting and visualising RNA secondary structures. This works well for the majority of sequences in RNAcentral. However, some sequences include large insertions that do not align to the templates. Previous versions of R2DT displayed such regions as unfolded loops. For example, constrained folding ..read more

We are pleased to announce RNAcentral release 21, featuring two new expert databases, PLncDB and Expression Atlas, a new visualisation, and updates to LitScan. Welcome PLncDB PLncDB is a comprehensive database of long non-coding RNAs found in plants, featuring data on 80 species. PLncDB have gone to considerable lengths to ensure confidence in their annotations, more details on which can be found in the paper. To explore their data, start here. Welcome Expression Atlas Expression atlas is a resource that allows users to find out where genes are expressed, and how the expression changes w ..read more

We are pleased to announce RNAcentral release 20 featuring literature integration with LitScan, new permissive licence (CC0) to enable data reuse without restrictions, as well as a new expert database, Ribovision. Introducing LitScan One of the most requested features for RNAcentral has been a comprehensive, up-to-date connection with literature. In release 20, we have taken our first step toward this goal by developing RNAcentral LitScan to analyse open access articles from Europe PMC. RNAcentral LitScan is a new text mining pipeline that connects RNA sequences with the latest open access s ..read more

RNAcentral is dedicated to making our data freely and readily available to everyone. Currently, we release our data under EMBL-EBI’s Terms of use, but we think moving to the the Creative Commons Zero license (CC0) will be an improvement, because this will: Be more in line with the spirit of EMBL-EBI's Terms of use and place data in the public domain without constraints. We believe that this approach to research data sharing strengthens open science and scientific progress. Encourage remixing and reuse as it makes clear to any user - academic, commercial or otherwise - that the data is not own ..read more

  We are pleased to announce that RNAcentral release 19 is now live. Version 19 features a new intermolecular interaction database, PSICQUIC, improved genome mapping, updated Rfam annotations, and CPAT-based protein detection. Read on to learn more or browse >31 million non-coding RNAs in RNAcentral. Welcome to PSICQUICRNAcentral welcomes PSICQUIC (pronounced ‘psychic’) as a new member database. This database provides manually curated intermolecular interactions and we have imported the ncRNA-protein interaction data produced by UCL functional gene annotation team. This adds 4,420 new ..read more

RNAcentral and Rfam recently completed the search for a project leader to succeed Anton Petrov and Blake Sweeney has been appointed and recently started in his new role. Some of you may know Blake as the current RNAcentral bioinformatician where he has been running the bioinformatic pipeline and speaking at conferences. With a PhD in RNA bioinformatics and a decade of experience developing RNA databases, including 4.5 years at RNAcentral, Blake is perfectly positioned to take the projects forward. The official handover date is in May, but until then Anton and Blake will be working together to ..read more

We are pleased to announce that release 18 of RNAcentral is available! This release features improvements to the RNA types, secondary structures, and updates to our member databases. Additionally, we are hiring for the Project Leader role. If you are interested please see the job description here.  Improved RNA types We worked with the Sequence Ontology (SO) team to improve the rRNA terms.The Sequence Ontology now reflects the diversity of rRNA sequences with specific subtypes for cytosolic, mitochondrial, and plastid rRNAs. A  summary of the changes is shown below. The new SO t ..read more