diff --git a/biology/gffread/Makefile b/biology/gffread/Makefile
index ed622c0c85e7..eb96cebdf8cb 100644
--- a/biology/gffread/Makefile
+++ b/biology/gffread/Makefile
@@ -1,25 +1,25 @@
 PORTNAME=	gffread
 DISTVERSIONPREFIX=	v
-DISTVERSION=	0.12.7
+DISTVERSION=	0.12.9
 CATEGORIES=	biology
 
 MAINTAINER=	jwb@FreeBSD.org
 COMMENT=	GFF/GTF format conversions, filtering, FASTA extraction, etc
-WWW=		http://ccb.jhu.edu/software/stringtie/gff.shtml\#gffread
+WWW=		https://ccb.jhu.edu/software/stringtie/gff.shtml#gffread
 
 LICENSE=	MIT
 LICENSE_FILE=	${WRKSRC}/LICENSE
 
 USES=		gmake
 USE_GITHUB=	yes
 
 GH_ACCOUNT=	gpertea
-GH_TUPLE=	gpertea:gclib:v${DISTVERSION}:gpertea/gclib
+GH_TUPLE=	gpertea:gclib:v0.12.8:gpertea/gclib
 
 INSTALL_TARGET=	install-strip
 
 CONFLICTS_INSTALL=	cufflinks
 
 PLIST_FILES=	bin/gffread
 
 .include <bsd.port.mk>
diff --git a/biology/gffread/distinfo b/biology/gffread/distinfo
index 14af8eee92bf..74f937f72767 100644
--- a/biology/gffread/distinfo
+++ b/biology/gffread/distinfo
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-TIMESTAMP = 1636511584
-SHA256 (gpertea-gffread-v0.12.7_GH0.tar.gz) = 6f3417090b3beb74f435bf5d462c87475b3c704a8a0d71821f6c1321c47dbbbe
-SIZE (gpertea-gffread-v0.12.7_GH0.tar.gz) = 403734
-SHA256 (gpertea-gclib-v0.12.7_GH0.tar.gz) = 9c74db64c4ee1fb93a6c02fa227258baafc337303f26ce3ba0cf37dfc1ba687f
-SIZE (gpertea-gclib-v0.12.7_GH0.tar.gz) = 259314
+TIMESTAMP = 1776080973
+SHA256 (gpertea-gffread-v0.12.9_GH0.tar.gz) = 92eb4a52fdd14c5fd3684041ef2d040c44d7414d076467a326eea2efa087a085
+SIZE (gpertea-gffread-v0.12.9_GH0.tar.gz) = 408710
+SHA256 (gpertea-gclib-v0.12.8_GH0.tar.gz) = a8dea4d273d6802f77f26a5394b1d66dfc1aba46a725c61e4c7399b756fb75e3
+SIZE (gpertea-gclib-v0.12.8_GH0.tar.gz) = 262545
diff --git a/biology/gffread/pkg-descr b/biology/gffread/pkg-descr
index def9446aacb9..2971ed7cbfaf 100644
--- a/biology/gffread/pkg-descr
+++ b/biology/gffread/pkg-descr
@@ -1,2 +1,7 @@
 GFF/GTF utility providing format conversions, filtering, FASTA sequence
-extraction and more.
+extraction and more.  The program gffread can be used to validate,
+filter, convert and perform various other operations on GFF files.
+Because the program shares the same GFF parser code with Cufflinks,
+Stringtie, and gffcompare, it could be used to verify that a GFF file
+from a certain annotation source is correctly "understood" by these
+programs.