GenBank stores publicly available DNA sequence data generated by the Human Genome Project and other research programs.
Operated by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, GenBank is an annotated nucleotide sequence database maintained by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. During the HGP, sequencing centers deposited billions of DNA letters into GenBank and its international partner databases, allowing researchers worldwide to access the data rapidly.
GenBank is part of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration, alongside the European Nucleotide Archive and Japan’s DNA Data Bank of Japan. The databases exchange records, so the same underlying submissions can be available through multiple international services. GenBank remains the most recognizable single database answer for a U.S.-focused quiz question.
Ensembl is different: it is a genome browser and annotation resource that helps users explore genes and assemblies. Swiss-Prot focuses on curated protein information, while PubMed indexes biomedical publications rather than storing genome sequence records.