14 September 2015 — Human Genome Browser default changed to GRCh38/hg38
In conjunction with the release of the new 100-species Conservation track on the - hg38/GRCh38 human assembly, we have changed the default human browser on our website from - hg19 to hg38. In most cases, if you are currently using the hg19 (or older) browser, the - Genome Browser will continue to display that assembly for you when you start it up. - However, there are circumstances in which the assembly may switch to the newer version; - for instance, if you reset your browser defaults. If you find yourself in a situation - where some of your favorite browser tracks have "disappeared", you may want to check - that you're viewing the right assembly. + hg38/GRCh38 human assembly, we have now changed the default human browser on our + website from hg19 to hg38. This should not affect your current browsing sessions; + if you were last looking at the hg19 (or older) browser, the Genome Browser will + continue to display that assembly for you when you start it up. There are circumstances, + however, in which the selected assembly can switch to the newer version. For instance, + the assembly will switch to hg38 if you reset your browser defaults. If you find + yourself in a situation where some of your favorite browser tracks have "disappeared", + you may want to check that you're viewing the right assembly.
- In upcoming months, we will continue our efforts to expand the annotation track set - on the hg38 browser to include many of the tracks present on previous human assemblies. In cases - where it makes sense, data may be simply "lifted" from hg19 using migration - tools. However, in many instances, we must rely on our data providers to generate new versions of - their data on the latest assembly. We'll publish these data sets as they become available. + We will continue our efforts to expand the annotation track set on the hg38 browser + to include many of the tracks present on previous human assemblies. In cases where + it makes sense, data may be simply "lifted" from hg19 using migration tools. + In many instances, however, we must rely on our data providers to generate new versions + of their data on the latest assembly. We will publish these data sets as they become available.
For a summary of the new features in the GRCh38 assembly, see the overview we published in March 2014.
10 September 2015 — 100 Species Conservation Track now available on GRCh38/hg38
We are pleased to announce the release of a new Conservation track based on the human (GRCh38/hg38) assembly. This track shows multiple alignments of 100 vertebrate species and measurements of evolutionary conservation using two methods (phastCons and phyloP) from the PHAST package for all species. The multiple alignments were generated using multiz and other tools in the UCSC/Penn State Bioinformatics comparative genomics alignment pipeline. Conserved elements identified by phastCons are also displayed in this track. For more details, visit the track description page.