The first element in your XML is your XML document. If you want to have more than one "gene" element, you'll have to enclose them in something else.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<genecollection>
<gene id = "2" label = "gene of some interest" />
<gene id = "3" label = "gene of more interest" />
</genecollection>
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Then their IDs would be keys %{$xml->{gene}} and the label of the gene with the id of 2, for example, would be $xml->{gene}{2}{label}... Is that what you are trying to do?

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";