Locating literature about a gene in PubMed can be as simple as searching PubMed with a gene name or symbol. For example, searching PubMed for the gene ank1 retrieves hundreds of results.

During Automatic Term Mapping, PubMed did not find any MeSH Terms to match ank1, so it searched for “ank1”[All Fields].

NCBI Gene Database

For a more precise search of PubMed for genes, or if you can’t find your gene in PubMed, you’ll want to start in the NCBI Gene database, which serves as a portal to gene-centered information from different NLM resources.

To search Gene, enter a gene name or symbol. The Gene database automatically matches your search with the gene it thinks is most relevant, which is displayed in a box at the top of the results page. Also in the box are links to other NLM resources, including PubMed. Click on the PubMed link to view the linked results.

Going to PubMed from the Gene database will retrieve the most relevant citations about a gene.

To see detailed step-by-step directions for finding genes in NLM databases, view the tutorial How to: Find published information on a gene or sequence. For help with finding gene information across all NLM resources, view the Gene Quick Start guide.