DGVa: Quick tour

What is the DGVa? The Database of Genomic Variants archive [2] (DGVa) is a public catalogue of structural variation found in the genomes of individuals within a species. Why do we need the DGVa? In recent years there have been unprecedented advances in the technologies that characterise genomic variation, and it is well known that variation at the single nucleotide level is abundant across the genomes of all species. However, it is becoming clear that genomic structural variation [3] accounts for more of the individual differences at the base pair [4] level in humans and is likely to play a major role in disease. Two other areas of research that are becoming increasingly important in this field are discovering how genomic structural variation affects an individual's characteristics, and understanding the role that genomic structural variation has played in the evolution of species. The DGVa catalogues, stores and freely disseminates this important class of genomic variation in any species, providing a valuable resource to a large community of researchers (Figure 1).