[ensembl-announce] Ensembl Genomes 18 has been released!

[Denise Carvalho-Silva]

Dear all,

The Ensembl Genomes project has celebrated its 4th year anniversary in the beginning of this week and now we are pleased to announce another milestone: Ensembl Genomes release 18.

In our latest release, we provide several new species for all divisions of Ensembl Genomes, which includes three new genomes in Ensembl Fungi (Yarrowia lipolytica, Cryptococcus neoformans and Trichoderma reesei); one new genome in Ensembl Protists (Guillardia theta); four new genomes in Ensembl Metazoa (Brugia malayi, Loa loa, Megaselia scalaris and Strigamia maritima); one new species in Ensembl Plants (Medicago truncatula). We have also incorporated the latest versions of prokaryotic genomes from INSDC in Ensembl Bacteria.

NOTE: The updated public mysql database will be available on Monday, April 29th 2013.

The detailed features of this new release are:

* Bacteria

	• Addition of cross-references to Rhea in Ensembl Bacteria;
	• New and updated genomes: 6,305 bacterial genomes in total, all deposited in ENA.

* Fungi

	• Three new species are included in Ensembl Fungi: the human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, and the industrially important species Yarrowia lipolytica and Trichoderma reesei;
	• New Botryotinia fuckeliana assembly and EST data;
	• Updated annotation for Schizosaccharomyces pombe from PomBase.

* Protists

	• Extended taxonomic coverage with the newly added Guillardia theta genome;
	• Updated DNA alignments and synteny for tramenopiles genomes.

* Metazoa

	• Two new parasitic nematode genomes: Brugia malayi (causative agent of lymphatic filariasis) and Loa loa (causative agent of subcutaneous filariasis);
	• The genomes of scuttle fly (Megaselia scalaris) and the centipede Strigamia maritima are now available. The latter is the first myriapod genome to be included in Ensembl Metazoa;
	• Updated assembly for Caenorhabditis elegans and Schistosoma mansoni.

* Plants

	• Barrel clover (Medicago truncatula) is now available. This is the second legume genome to be included in Ensembl Plants;
	• New visualization of barley (Hordeum vulgare) physical map anchoring the gene space assembly;
	• Whole genome alignments between barley, rice and brachypodium;
	• Updated maize (Zea mays) assembly to version 3;
	• New variation datasets for barley and Brachypodium distachyon;
	• Alignments of Triticum aestivum (bread wheat) WGS, TSA and EST assemblies against the barley genome are now available. 
	  The bread wheat data can also still be visualised in the context ofBracypodium distachyon;
	• Protein domain predictions and cross references have been updated for most plant genomes;
	• New pairwise alignments between several genome sequences.

* Software migration to Ensembl 71

Have fun!

The Ensembl Genomes Team