Web Alert: Viral genomics and metagenomics

Lawrence P. Wackett*

An annotated selection of World Wide Web sites relevant to the topics in environmental microbiology

*McKnight Professor & Head, Microbial Biochemistry & Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA

 

NCBI virus genomes
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genomes/genlist.cgi?taxid=10239&type=5&name=Viruses
This webpage of the National Center for Biotechnology Information contains information on 2651 genes and genomes for viruses infecting plants, animals and microbes.

Genome information broker for viruses
http://gib-v.genes.nig.ac.jp/
At the present date, the genome information broker for viruses has information on 41862 data records for complete, or segments of, viral genomes. Functions are provded to BLAST against or search these records.

Plant virus resistance
http://www.scri.ac.uk/research/pp/plantpathogeninteractions/virusresistance
This page provides a good overview of the viruses that infect plants and the mechanisms plants use to resist viral infections.

Viral bioinformatics resource center: Alabama
http://www.vbrc.org/
The Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (VBRC) at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and the University of Victoria provides genomics resources to the scientific community relevant to potential viral bioterrorist threats or as emerging viral diseases. The Center has a particular focus on viruses from the families: Arenaviridae, Bunyaviridae, Flaviviridae, Filoviridae, Paramyxoviridae and Togaviridae.

Viral bioinformatics resource center: Victoria
http://athena.bioc.uvic.ca/genomes/index.html
The Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (VBRC) at the University of Victoria provides a parallel resource to the website at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, listed above.

Human papillomavirus database
http://hpv-web.lanl.gov/
The human papillomavirus database contains information on papillomavirus and related cellular gene sequences.

VIOLIN: Viral and phage genome annotations
http://opal.biology.gatech.edu/GeneMark/VIOLIN/
This website uses GenMark gene-finding heuristic models to identify genes in viral genomes.

Introduction to viral metagenome project
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~elhaij/bnfo301-07/Units/ViroBIKE/Edwards-Rohwer-tour.pdf
This webpage discusses key issues in viral metagenomics and provides references to peer-reviewed literature relevant to the topic.

Characterization of global metagenome
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~elhaij/bnfo301-07/Syllabus/PIRE-preproposal-post-final-summary-refs.pdf
This webpage describes a research effort to include a broad spectrum of people, including high school students and teachers, in a major effort to sequence and characterize viral genomes on a global scale.

IMG genomes: Viruses
http://img.jgi.doe.gov/cgi-bin/pub/main.cgi
This main page of the Integrated Microbial Genome resource links to a page of viral genomes. That page, in turn, links to detailed information on 2230 viral genomes.

Marine vruses
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Marine_viruses
This site provides an excellent primer on viruses in the oceans.

SCOR marine virus working group
http://web.bio.utk.edu/wilhelm/SCOR.html
This website serves as a forum for people studying the role of viruses in biological and geochemical processes in the oceans.

Chlorella viruses
http://plantpath.unl.edu/facilities/virology/
This attractive website deals with a group of DNA viruses that replicate in chlorella-like green algae.

Phage and prophage genome sequences
http://phage.sdsu.edu/~rob/phage/
This webpage builds on a published review article dealing with phage and prophage genomics.

Phage project
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Phage_project
This is the website for the Phage Learning Project. The idea is to link education and research by engaging many students in phage genomics research projects.

Cyanophage genomics
http://web.mit.edu/mbsulli/www/
This is a personal website with some interesting information on cyanophage ecology and genomics.

Viral metagenomics: Review
http://www.micab.umn.edu/current/edwards.pdf
This webpage contains a recent review article on viral metagenomics.

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