The Sequence Read Archive or Short Read Archive is an important bioinformatics

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...

 database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 hosted at the European Bioinformatics Institute

European Bioinformatics Institute

The European Bioinformatics Institute is a centre for research and services in bioinformatics, and is part of European Molecular Biology Laboratory...

. It provides a public repository for the 'short reads' generated by second generation sequencing technologies.

The 'short reads' are typically less than 1000bp of DNA sequence and associated quality information collected from a genomic, environmental or transcriptomic (reverse transcribed) sample.

The NCBI mirror of the SRA was closed in 2010 due to funding cuts.

Deposition of data in the SRA is a mandatory requirement of some funding agencies and open access journals.

External links

• European Nucleotide Archive, page for search in SRA
• SRA homepage at the NCBI.
• SRA 'homepage' in typical EBI style.