The continuing rapid growth of the default BLAST nucleotide database will increase search times, reduce capacity, and cause delays in updating the database. In the not-too-distant future, searching the entire nt database on the web will no longer be possible unless we modify the database scope and composition.

Because of the above concerns, we want to make the default Web BLAST nucleotide database smaller and more efficient. Some options are to:

• Change its composition to improve the quality of sequence entries included
• Take steps to slow its growth rate
• Divide it into several databases by biological or functional categories

Re-factoring of the database may be based on one of these strategies and will make use of feedback concerning your BLAST usage.

To begin getting feedback, we have created a page with four new databases based on taxonomic categories

• Read more and find out how you can provide feedback on changes to the database at NCBI Insights.
• Please try out the test page and provide feedback.