1 research outputs found
Virus nomenclature below the species level : a standardized nomenclature for laboratory animal-adapted strains and variants of viruses assigned to the family Filoviridae
The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) organizes the classification of
viruses into taxa, but is not responsible for the nomenclature for taxa members. International
experts groups, such as the ICTV Study Groups, recommend the classification and naming of
viruses and their strains, variants, and isolates. The ICTV Filoviridae Study Group has recently
introduced an updated classification and nomenclature for filoviruses. Subsequently, and
together with numerous other filovirus experts, a consistent nomenclature for their natural
genetic variants and isolates was developed that aims at simplifying the retrieval of sequence
data from electronic databases. This is a first important step toward a viral genome annotation
standard as sought by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Here, this
work is extended to include filoviruses obtained in the laboratory by artificial selection through
passage in laboratory hosts. The previously developed template for natural filovirus genetic
variant naming ( //<year of
sampling>/-) is retained, but it is proposed to
adapt the type of information added to each field for laboratory animal-adapted variants. For
instance, the full-length designation of an Ebola virus Mayinga variant adapted at the State
Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology “Vector” to cause disease in guinea pigs after
seven passages would be akin to “Ebola virus VECTOR/C.porcellus-lab/COD/1976/Mayinga-
GPA-P7”. As was proposed for the names of natural filovirus variants, we suggest using the fulllength
designation in databases, as well as in the method section of publications. Shortened
designations (such as “EBOV VECTOR/C.por/COD/76/May-GPA-P7”) and abbreviations (such
as “EBOV/May-GPA-P7”) could be used in the remainder of the text depending on how critical it is to convey information contained in the full-length name. “EBOV” would suffice if only one
EBOV strain/variant/isolate is addressed.This work was funded in part by the Joint Science and Technology Office for Chem Bio Defense (proposal #TMTI0048_09_RD_T to SB).http://www.springerlink.com/content/0304-8608/hb2013ab201