VConTACT: an iVirus tool to classify double-stranded DNA viruses that infect Archaea and Bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Taxonomic classification of archaeal and bacterial viruses is challenging, yet also fundamental for developing a predictive understanding of microbial ecosystems. Recent identification of hundreds of thousands of new viral genomes and genome fragments, whose hosts remain unknown, requires a paradigm shift away from traditional classification approaches and towards the use of genomes for taxonomy. Here we revisited the use of genomes and their protein content as a means for developing a viral taxonomy for bacterial and archaeal viruses. A network-based analytic was evaluated and benchmarked against authority-accepted taxonomic assignments and found to be largely concordant. Exceptions were manually examined and found to represent areas of viral genome 'sequence space' that are under-sampled

SUBMITTER: Bolduc B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5419219 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature