The RNA Virus Database

Belshaw, Robert; de Oliveira, Tulio; Markowitz, Sidney; Rambaut, Andrew

In addition to the need to facilitate greater comparative analysis of RNA viruses is the need to link together the existing virus Web sites and their underlying databases. There are many Web sites that provide genomic data, tools for genetic analysis and/or biological information for some viruses (see 'Links' on our site home page). The RNA Virus Database is intended to complement these other sites by providing basic genomic information and tools for all RNA viruses and linking the user to more specialist sites, where they exist, e.g. for HIV-1 and hepatitis C virus (HCV), we provide links to sites such as the Los Alamos Laboratory on the main page for each of these viruses (find by typing HIV-1 or HCV into the search window in the top toolbar). For such viruses, we do not duplicate the work of other groups by attempting to display the available diversity of genomes. We intend that the RNA Virus Database should develop further as a hub for other sites and we therefore encourage other workers to contact us with details of their sites that they wish linked to ours. Also, we encourage workers to 'adopt a virus' and improve and/or expand the information that we provide for individual species. This can be done by emailing us or getting involved directly in developing the database, which is an Open Source project available at our GoogleCode site (http://code.google.com/p/rnavirusdb).