diff --git a/gnu/packages/bioinformatics.scm b/gnu/packages/bioinformatics.scm
index a1db9eedb6..02398479f9 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/bioinformatics.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/bioinformatics.scm
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 ;;; Copyright © 2016, 2017 Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il>
 ;;; Copyright © 2016 Marius Bakke <mbakke@fastmail.com>
 ;;; Copyright © 2016 Raoul Bonnal <ilpuccio.febo@gmail.com>
-;;; Copyright © 2017 Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr>
+;;; Copyright © 2017, 2018 Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr>
 ;;; Copyright © 2017 Arun Isaac <arunisaac@systemreboot.net>
 ;;;
 ;;; This file is part of GNU Guix.
@@ -3213,7 +3213,7 @@ VCF.")
 (define-public htslib
   (package
     (name "htslib")
-    (version "1.5")
+    (version "1.6")
     (source (origin
               (method url-fetch)
               (uri (string-append
@@ -3221,7 +3221,7 @@ VCF.")
                     version "/htslib-" version ".tar.bz2"))
               (sha256
                (base32
-                "0bcjmnbwp2bib1z1bkrp95w9v2syzdwdfqww10mkb1hxlmg52ax0"))))
+                "1jsca3hg4rbr6iqq6imkj4lsvgl8g9768bcmny3hlff2w25vx24m"))))
     (build-system gnu-build-system)
     (arguments
      `(#:phases