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. 2017 Apr 3;9(4):70.
doi: 10.3390/v9040070.

How to Name and Classify Your Phage: An Informal Guide

Evelien Adriaenssens  1   2 , J Rodney Brister  3   4
Affiliations

How to Name and Classify Your Phage: An Informal Guide

Evelien Adriaenssens et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

With this informal guide, we try to assist both new and experienced phage researchers through two important stages that follow phage discovery; that is, naming and classification. Providing an appropriate name for a bacteriophage is not as trivial as it sounds, and the effects might be long-lasting in databases and in official taxon names. Phage classification is the responsibility of the Bacterial and Archaeal Viruses Subcommittee (BAVS) of the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). While the BAVS aims at providing a holistic approach to phage taxonomy, for individual researchers who have isolated and sequenced a new phage, this can be a little overwhelming. We are now providing these researchers with an informal guide to phage naming and classification, taking a "bottom-up" approach from the phage isolate level.

Keywords: bacteriophages; classification guide; naming guide; phage classification; phage taxonomy.

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Conflict of interest statement

E.M.A. and J.R.B. are both members of the BAVS of ICTV. E.M.A. was funded by the National Environmental Research Council of the UK. Research by J.R.B. was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine. The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of bacteriophage nucleotide sequences deposited in International Nucleotide Sequence Database Consortium (INSDC) databases. The number of nucleotide sequences publically available from INSDC databases was calculated by searching the GenBank nucleotide database with the term “vhost bacteria[filter]” and plotting the number of sequences available on 1 January of each year shown [9].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) [(accessed on 23 February 2017)]; Available online: http://www.ictvonline.org/
    1. Bacterial and Archaeal Viruses Subcommittee. [(accessed on 23 February 2017)]; Available online: https://talk.ictvonline.org/information/w/members/441/bacterial-and-arch....
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