JVI Figure table search 04
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Upton, C.
Right arrow Articles by Roper, R. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Upton, C.
Right arrow Articles by Roper, R. L.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Virology, July 2003, p. 7590-7600, Vol. 77, No. 13
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.13.7590-7600.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Poxvirus Orthologous Clusters: toward Defining the Minimum Essential Poxvirus Genome

Chris Upton,* Stephanie Slack, Arwen L. Hunter, Angelika Ehlers, and Rachel L. Roper

Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Received 17 December 2002/ Accepted 26 March 2003

Increasingly complex bioinformatic analysis is necessitated by the plethora of sequence information currently available. A total of 21 poxvirus genomes have now been completely sequenced and annotated, and many more genomes will be available in the next few years. First, we describe the creation of a database of continuously corrected and updated genome sequences and an easy-to-use and extremely powerful suite of software tools for the analysis of genomes, genes, and proteins. These tools are available free to all researchers and, in most cases, alleviate the need for using multiple Internet sites for analysis. Further, we describe the use of these programs to identify conserved families of genes (poxvirus orthologous clusters) and have named the software suite POCs, which is available at www.poxvirus.org. Using POCs, we have identified a set of 49 absolutely conserved gene families—those which are conserved between the highly diverged families of insect-infecting entomopoxviruses and vertebrate-infecting chordopoxviruses. An additional set of 41 gene families conserved in chordopoxviruses was also identified. Thus, 90 genes are completely conserved in chordopoxviruses and comprise the minimum essential genome, and these will make excellent drug, antibody, vaccine, and detection targets. Finally, we describe the use of these tools to identify necessary annotation and sequencing updates in poxvirus genomes. For example, using POCs, we identified 19 genes that were widely conserved in poxviruses but missing from the vaccinia virus strain Tian Tan 1998 GenBank file. We have reannotated and resequenced fragments of this genome and verified that these genes are conserved in Tian Tan. The results for poxvirus genes and genomes are discussed in light of evolutionary processes.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Ring Rd., Petch Bldg., Rm. 150, Victoria, British Columbia V8P 5C2, Canada. Phone: (250) 721-6507. Fax: (250) 721-8855. E-mail: cupton{at}uvic.ca.

Journal of Virology, July 2003, p. 7590-7600, Vol. 77, No. 13
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.13.7590-7600.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. Mol. Cell. Biol. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
Clin. Vaccine Immunol. ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 2003 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.