Data Integration for Improved Analysis of Microbial Stain Characteristics

国际病毒分类委员会（ICTV）是由国际微生物学会联合会（IUMS）于1970年建立的，目的是为病毒学各分支学科之间存在的混乱的病毒分类和命名情况提供一个统一的分类方案。ICTV代码和数据小组委员会在开发用于描述病毒特征的通用代码方面取得了实质性进展，但由于病毒学家亚组之间的一些差异和不断变化的技术，这项工作需要进行重大修订和更新。由于缺乏一套得到广泛认可的标准化术语来描述所有类型的病毒，导致国际病毒分类委员会以外的团体进行重复工作。这些对植物、昆虫、微生物和脊椎动物病毒特征进行分类的努力在内容上显示出惊人的相似性，尽管精确的术语远非标准。代码和数据小组委员会通过对现有病毒数据库的调查和参加由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）主办的“病毒特征标准化术语研讨会”，为统一这些不同的方案迈出了第一步。与会者一致认为，标准描述符的可用性将提供一个“独立于软件”的工具，以促进病毒学家之间的数据库开发和数据交换。本向NSF提交的提案要求在ICTV代码和数据小组委员会的指导下为生成和传播这一标准化术语提供资金。预计该数据集将成为世界病毒数据库的基础，该数据库的目的是为编辑、出版商、数据库开发人员和研究界提供标准的国际参考工具。

The International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), was established in 1970 by the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS), to provide a unified taxonomic scheme for the confusing virus classification and nomenclature situation existing among the subdisciplines of virology. The Code and Data Subcommittee of ICTV has made substantial progress towards the development of a universal code for the description of virus characters but, because of some disparity among subgroups of virologists and changing technology, this work requires major revision and updating. The absence of a widely recognized set of standardized terms for characterizing all types of viruses has resulted in duplication of effort by groups outside the ICTV. These efforts to classify characteristics of plant, insect, microbial, and vertebrate viruses show striking similarity in content, although the precise terminology is far from standard. The Code and Data Subcommittee has taken the first steps toward unification of these various schemes through a survey of existing virus databases and by attendance at a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored "Workshop on Standardized Terminology of Virus Characteristics." It was the consensus of participants at this Workshop that the availability of standard descriptors would provide a "software independent" tool to facilitate database development and data exchange among virologists. This proposal to the NSF requests funding for generation and dissemination of this standardized terminology under the direction of the ICTV Code and Data Subcommittee. It is anticipated that this data set will be the foundation of a World Virus Database, the purpose of which would be to provide a standard international reference tool for editors, publishers, database developers, and the research community.