SGD^TM is a scientific database of the molecular biology and genetics of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is commonly known as baker's or budding yeast.

A link to Genevestigator, a reference expression database and meta-analysis system, has been added to the Functional Analysis pull-down menu on Locus Summary pages for all chromosomal features. The link provides direct access to the meta-profile mutation tool expression summary, which displays the relative expression level of the chromosomal feature of interest in response to mutations or other genetic modifications in the genome. This provides a tabbed entry point to view expression summaries created using other Meta-Profile Analysis tools. There are currently 1,794 yeast arrays available for query at Genevestigator. Thanks to Philip Zimmermann of Nebion for helping set up these links.

• Genome Snapshot
• New papers added to SGD this week.
• View Genome-wide Analysis papers in SGD.
• Do a literature search.
• Table of Gene Summary Paragraphs (new ones highlighted yellow).

SGD curators periodically update the systematic sequence and its annotation. Information regarding changes can be found via the Summary of Chromosome Sequence and Annotation Updates and in the "Locus History" pages of affected features. Files on the SGD FTP site are updated weekly.

Between 2009-05-04 and 2009-05-08, the annotation of ORF RDH54/YBR073W was changed, 4 new ncRNAs were annotated on Chromosome VI, and a total of 63 additional ARS elements were annotated on Chromosomes II, IV, VII, VIII, IX, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, and XVI.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Piotr Slonimski, who died in Paris at the age of 86 on the 25th of April. Known to everybody as "Piotr", he began his studies in medicine during the Second World War at the "underground university" in Warsaw and when this was forced to close, he completed his medical studies at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, graduating in 1946. After the war, he moved to France to work with Boris Ephrussi, where he began his work with yeast, studying the "petite" mutants. This was the beginning of Piotr's studies of mitochondria, which would occupy the major part of his career. During this time he laid the foundations of mitochondrial genetics and pioneered the study of mitochondrial biogenesis.

In the late 1980s, Piotr was a fervent advocate of the European Yeast Genome Sequencing project; in 2009 it is difficult to remember how controversial this project was, and Piotr's reputation and personality were crucial to the successful launch of the project and the subsequent transformation of modern biology.

Piotr received many honors and prizes for his work and remained deeply committed to research all his life; although he officially retired in 1991, his enthusiasm for research never diminished, his last article was published in 2009 and others were being written when he died. Finally, Piotr exercised enormous influence as a teacher, revolutionizing the teaching of Genetics in France, and was responsible for the training of generations of students. He will be much missed by all his friends and colleagues, and the wider Yeast community. - Christopher Herbert

SGD sends out its quarterly newsletter to colleagues designated as contacts in SGD. An HTML version of the newsletter is available. If you would like to receive this letter in the future please use the Colleague Submission/Update form to let us know.

SGD no longer includes unpublished information in the Description field on the main Locus Summary pages. In the past, unpublished information submitted with new gene name reservations was sometimes included in the Description field. Now, such information is shown in a Reserved Name Note, which is displayed on the Locus History pages (accessible via a tab at the top of the Locus Summary pages), along with the unpublished reference. All of the information in the Description fields on Locus Summary pages is derived from the published references cited in the Description.

An article describing SGD's new mutant phenotype curation system (HTML | PDF) has been published in the inaugural issue of the journal Database: The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation. The article, "New mutant phenotype data curation system in the Saccharomyces Genome Database," explains how mutant phenotype data are collected from the literature, organized, stored, and displayed at SGD, and describes how SGD users can download and search phenotype data.

OpenHelix has released a comprehensive SGD Online Tutorial that describes many features of SGD and is freely accessible to users. The tutorial discusses organization and navigation of the SGD site, with particular emphasis on the Locus Summary pages. It explains SGD search tools and how to perform different kinds of searches, as well as some of the many internal and external resources accessible from SGD. Slides and exercises are also available for download. The SGD Tutorial is part of a larger suite of Free Tutorials on Model Organism Databases developed by OpenHelix and funded in part by NHGRI.

Links to the PhylomeDB database, which displays phylogenies of S. cerevisiae genes as described in Marcet-Houben and Gabaldon (2009) PLoS ONE 4:e4357, have been added to the "Comparison Resources" pull-down menu on the Locus Summary pages of all protein-coding genes. See Huerta-Cepas et al., (2008) Nucleic Acids Res 36:D491 for more information about the PhylomeDB database. Thanks to Toni Gabaldon for help in setting up these links.

The yeast community mourns the loss of Dr. Rudolf Schweyen, who passed away on February 15th, 2009. Dr. Schweyen was a leader in yeast research, working on mitochondrial mRNA splicing early in his career and later studying metal transport across both the mitochondrial and plasma membranes. He had been a Professor of Genetics at the University of Vienna for nearly 25 years, most recently as the Head of the Department of Genetics. He was deeply committed to teaching and to expanding opportunities for younger scientists, and will be remembered for his kindness and generosity both as a scientist and as a person. A full obituary is available at the website of the Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna.

Memorial website for Rudolf Schweyen

The Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD^TM) project is supported by a P41 grant, National Resources [HG001315], from the National Human Genome Research Institute at the US National Institutes of Health.   The SGD^TM project is located in the Department of Genetics at the School of Medicine, Stanford University. The trademark on SGD^TM is held by The Board of Trustees, Leland Stanford Junior University.

Database Copyright © 1997-2008 The Board of Trustees, Leland Stanford Junior University. Permission to use the information contained in this database was given by the researchers/institutes who contributed or published the information. Users of the database are solely responsible for compliance with any copyright restrictions, including those applying to the author abstracts. Documents from this server are provided "AS-IS" without any warranty, expressed or implied. How to cite SGD.