Annotating your own variation data with the Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor VEP 

In Ensembl, we have different types of variants for several species: single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) short nucleotide insertions and/or deletions longer variants classified as structural variants (including CNVs) SNPs are the most common form of variation in the genome and they are extensively used to study genetic differences between individuals and populations. For example, for human, most of the variation data is imported from Single Nucleotide Polymorphism database (dbSNP) which is a public-domain archive for a broad collection of simple genetic polymorphisms. This collection of polymorphisms includes single-base nucleotide substitutions, small-scale multi-base deletions or insertions (also called deletion insertion polymorphisms or DIPs), and retroposable element insertions and microsatellite repeat variations (also called short tandem repeats or STRs).

@@EnsemblHelpdesk I see, so I understand from this that the primary focus on "SNPs" is simply because they are the most common (and probably least complex) type of variant. Other types of variants exist but are presumably more complicated to include in any analysis of genetic variation between individuals/populations so (some/many) researchers just focus their analyses on SNPs.(?)