We describe a prototype database of sequence alignments and experimental results for the /spl beta/-like globin gene cluster of mammals. This data repository is intended to help the international community of globin gene biologists to plan experiments, to design models and, ultimately, to understand regulation of those genes. Moreover, the approaches and software developed for this project will be applicable to other sequence-analysis problems. Our first steps were to develop a program that can simultaneously align a few very long sequences and to establish an e-mail server that formats any requested portion of the alignment, annotated to indicate highly conserved regions and known run sequence features. We are currently developing a World-Wide Web server that will provide access to the wealth of pertinent experimental data, in register with the annotated alignment, through a variety of query languages and graphical presentations.