Computer-aided virus identification on the World Wide Web.

Abstract

An attempt has been made to devise computer software that will aid virologists to identify unknown virus isolates using the World Wide Web. Computerized information from the Animal Virus Information System was used to obtain data on various characters of a virus species. Sequence data banks are used to obtain the molecular data. A probabilistic method of virus identification based on Willcox's implementation of Bayes' theorem is implemented. The program provides hints to the users to carry out additional tests required to obtain higher confidence in identification of virus species. Signature peptides of the virus can also be used to confirm identification. The software is implemented on a UNIX machine and is written in C, UNIX shell scripts and HTML to run on the World Wide Web. This is the first species identification software that allows the user to carry out identification online through Internet.