Metadata, in this case, labeled canned goods on the right, provides crucial information missing from unlabelled cans on the left. (Credit: Muhammad Syahid Abdillah & Donna Spearman/Unsplash)

Since its launch 25 years ago, the Genomes OnLine Database has matured from six projects on a spreadsheet into a flagship genomic metadata repository, making curated microbiome metadata that follows community standards freely available, and enabling large-scale comparative genomics analysis initiatives.

GOLD not only curates sequencing projects carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), but also those imported from public repositories, as well as project data entered by external users. Learn more about GOLD on the JGI’s website.