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. 2026 Jan 6;54(D1):D120-D127.
doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaf1295.

The European Nucleotide Archive in 2025

Affiliations

The European Nucleotide Archive in 2025

Yuan David et al. Nucleic Acids Res. .

Abstract

The European Nucleotide Archive (ENA; https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena), hosted at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), remains a global, open-access platform for the submission, archiving, dissemination, and reuse of nucleotide sequence data. In 2025, ENA continues to advance its mission of fostering FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data principles through innovations in interoperability, scalability, and global engagement, providing infrastructure for a rapidly growing volume of data across diverse domains. This article highlights the key developments in 2025, including the progress of the technical transformation, enhanced support for large-scale biodiversity projects, and the implementation of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration Global Participation Initiative. We also discuss infrastructure enhancements to handle exponential data growth and improve user experiences and data discovery.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The annual growth of the object counts in all the major data categories in logarithmic scale since 2016. The graph includes the public and private data objects submitted into ENA and archived successfully, excluding the data mirrored from the INSDC partners and withdrawn or replaced records (see https://ena-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq/release/data-availability-policy.html for definitions). Overview of ENA data type: a Study groups related data and controls release. Each Sample describes the source material and taxonomy. Runs relates to raw sequencing reads submitted. Genomes relates to assemblies. Other analyses pertains to secondary analysis results derived from sequence reads, not including assemblies, e.g. sequence variation, primary metagenomes. A Submission manages actions such as adding, updating, or releasing data.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The taxonomy hierarchy of taxon 10090 (Mus musculus—house mouse), showing its parent and the minimal representation of its child taxons.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
ENA Data Hubs Portal homepage, presenting an interface for the data hubs for registration, setup, and management.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Pathogens Portal homepage, presenting an overview of data that can be discovered on the portal.

References

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