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Accession number (bioinformatics)
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<p>An accession number, in <a href="/facts/Bioinformatics/D5x2L8ee">bioinformatics</a>, is a unique identifier given to a <a href="/facts/DNA_sequence/hsPsNCQW">DNA</a> or <a href="/facts/Amino_acid_sequence/QNBoERdu">protein</a> sequence record to allow for tracking of different versions of that sequence record and the associated sequence over time in a single data repository. Because of its relative stability, accession numbers can be utilized as <a href="/facts/Foreign_key/52Ns8RTD">foreign keys</a> for referring to a sequence object, but not necessarily to a unique sequence. All sequence information repositories implement the concept of "accession number" but might do so with subtle variations. </p>