An introduction to the UCSC Genome Browser

The Genome Browser at the University of California Santa Cruz provides a uniform graphical interface to sequences, features, and annotations of genomes across a wide spectrum of organisms, from yeast to humans. In particular, it covers seven nematode genomes: Caenorhabditis elegans, C. sp. 11, C. brenneri, C. briggsae, C. remanei, C. japonica, and Pristionchus pacificus and thus is particularly useful for multiple-genome comparative analysis. One can use the provided tools and visual aides to facilitate sequence feature detection and examination. This article provides a brief introduction for using the Genome Browser from the perspective of a C. elegans researcher. Interested users should read the official user guide and explore the site more deeply as there are many more features not mentioned here.