Publication
IMG/VR: a database of cultured and uncultured DNA Viruses and retroviruses
Publisher:
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date:
10-2016
DOI:
10.1093/NAR/GKW1030
Abstract: Viruses represent the most abundant life forms on the planet. Recent experimental and computational improvements have led to a dramatic increase in the number of viral genome sequences identified primarily from metagenomic s les. As a result of the expanding catalog of metagenomic viral sequences, there exists a need for a comprehensive computational platform integrating all these sequences with associated metadata and analytical tools. Here we present IMG/VR (r/), the largest publicly available database of 3908 isolate reference DNA viruses with 264 413 computationally identified viral contigs from & ecologically erse metagenomic s les. Approximately half of the viral contigs are grouped into genetically distinct quasi-species clusters. Microbial hosts are predicted for 20 000 viral sequences, revealing nine microbial phyla previously unreported to be infected by viruses. Viral sequences can be queried using a variety of associated metadata, including habitat type and geographic location of the s les, or taxonomic classification according to hallmark viral genes. IMG/VR has a user-friendly interface that allows users to interrogate all integrated data and interact by comparing with external sequences, thus serving as an essential resource in the viral genomics community.