We are pleased to announce the release of Ensembl 113, and the corresponding release of Ensembl Genomes 60. This release brings major gene and regulatory feature annotation updates in Homo sapiens (Human) and Mus musculus (Mouse). We have updated existing genomes and added additional genomes across the different Ensembl sites, including livestock breeds in Ensembl, three new species in Ensembl Plants and 26 new species in Ensembl Metazoa. Can’t find the species you are looking for? Don’t forget that new and exciting genome assemblies and annotations are continuously added to Ensembl Rapid Release!

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In February, we talked to Gabriela Alejandra Merino from the Ensembl Regulation team. Before joining EMBL-EBI, Gabriela worked on protein function prediction. She is now involved in producing regulatory annotations for Ensembl. Outside of work, Gabriela is very active and participates in swimming competitions. Read on to get to know Gabriela and her work.

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The interpretation of non-coding variants is more challenging than that of coding variants as less prediction methods and reference data are available. On top of the annotation provided for human and mouse in the Ensembl Regulatory Build, the Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor (VEP) also integrates two other human-specific datasets providing information about how variants can affect gene expression. The plugins, satMutMPRA and FunMotifs, are available for use with command-line VEP. One provides detailed information on the impact on expression of variants in the regulatory regions of disease-associated genes; the other an alternative set of genome-wide transcription factor binding motifs.

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