Indian Plant Virus Database – a platform for showcasing research on plant viruses in India

Abstract

Indian Plant Virus Database (IPVdb) (http://220.227.138.213/virusdb/) hosts information on plant viruses reported from India. To develop this, basic information on plant viruses, their occurrence, particle mor phology, transmission, symptomatology and host range were collected and compiled from published litera ture. Sequence information corresponding to each of the virus species was gathered from the GenBank. The information assembled was organized as a searchable database using MySQL and PHP. In the home page of the database, a general outline about viruses, their history, taxonomy, transmission and management are provided. An alphabetical index of all virus species reported from India is also given in the home page along with their corresponding genera and family names. For each virus species entry, a brief introduction about the virus, its particle morphology, transmission, its natural host range, symptomatology and detection methods are given. Key references and all available sequences (both complete and partial) of each of the virus species are also provided. Selected sequences can be directly downloaded from the website in FASTA format for downstream analysis. Provision for BLAST analysis (Viro Blast) provided in the database will help researchers in quick identification of their samples.