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. 2018 Jan 4;46(D1):D708-D717.
doi: 10.1093/nar/gkx932.

Virus taxonomy: the database of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV)

Elliot J Lefkowitz  1 , Donald M Dempsey  1 , Robert Curtis Hendrickson  1 , Richard J Orton  2 , Stuart G Siddell  3 , Donald B Smith  4
Affiliations

Virus taxonomy: the database of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV)

Elliot J Lefkowitz et al. Nucleic Acids Res. .

Abstract

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) is charged with the task of developing, refining, and maintaining a universal virus taxonomy. This task encompasses the classification of virus species and higher-level taxa according to the genetic and biological properties of their members; naming virus taxa; maintaining a database detailing the currently approved taxonomy; and providing the database, supporting proposals, and other virus-related information from an open-access, public web site. The ICTV web site (http://ictv.global) provides access to the current taxonomy database in online and downloadable formats, and maintains a complete history of virus taxa back to the first release in 1971. The ICTV has also published the ICTV Report on Virus Taxonomy starting in 1971. This Report provides a comprehensive description of all virus taxa covering virus structure, genome structure, biology and phylogenetics. The ninth ICTV report, published in 2012, is available as an open-access online publication from the ICTV web site. The current, 10th report (http://ictv.global/report/), is being published online, and is replacing the previous hard-copy edition with a completely open access, continuously updated publication. No other database or resource exists that provides such a comprehensive, fully annotated compendium of information on virus taxa and taxonomy.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Taxonomy Web Page. A screen shot of the ICTV web page (http://ictv.global/virusTaxonomy.asp) that contains the taxonomy browser and search form.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Taxonomy browser. The online taxonomy browser, showing an expanded view of the taxonomic hierarchy of the species Measles morbillivirus. The ‘history’ links to the right of each row are colored green if there has been a change in the indicated taxon since the last release. Clicking on any ‘history’ link will take the user to the taxon history page (Figure 3).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Taxon history. Complete history of the species Alphacoronavirus 1. The bottom of the figure displays the earliest taxon (transmissible gastro-enteritis virus of swine) into which viruses belonging to the current taxon, Alphacoronavirus 1, were classified. Moving up the page provides an account of every change that has occurred including moves to new higher-level taxa, new names, and merges with other existing species. Within a particular release, a grayed-out row indicates that there was no change to that taxon, while other rows depict changes as indicated by the label above the row (New, Moved, Renamed and Merged).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
ICTV Report chapter. A screen shot of the web page depicting the Flaviviridae chapter of the ICTV Online (10th) Report (http://ictv.global/report/flaviviridae/).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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