ViralZone: recent updates to the virus knowledge resource

Abstract

ViralZone (http://viralzone.expasy.org) is a knowledge repository that allows users to learn about viruses including their virion structure, replication cycle and host-virus interactions. The information is divided into viral fact sheets that describe virion shape, molecular biology and epidemiology for each viral genus, with links to the corresponding annotated proteomes of UniProtKB. Each viral genus page contains detailed illustrations, text and PubMed references. This new update provides a linked view of viral molecular biology through 133 new viral ontology pages that describe common steps of viral replication cycles shared by several viral genera. This viral cell-cycle ontology is also represented in UniProtKB in the form of annotated keywords. In this way, users can navigate from the description of a replication-cycle event, to the viral genus concerned, and the associated UniProtKB protein records.

Figure 1.

Virus entry ontology. This picture is effectively a graphical menu that provides links to 18 pages describing possible mechanisms of viral entry into host cells and events occurring subsequent to host-cell entry.

Figure 2.

Improved fact sheets. The background image represents the influenza A fact sheet. Links to the ontology section are illustrated by boxes that depict each process. Each step of the viral cycle is explained in detail and users can return to the influenza A page from any of the ontology pages it appears in.