HFV

HFV aggregates and aligns hemorrhagic fever virus sequence data to enable comparative and evolutionary analyses and to support vaccine and drug design research.

Key Features:

• Sequence collection: A repository of more than 55,000 publicly available hemorrhagic fever virus sequences.
• Taxonomic coverage: Includes sequences from over 80 viral species across 10 genera in five families: Arenaviridae, Bunyaviridae, Flaviviridae, Filoviridae, and Togaviridae.
• Reference-based alignment: Employs an algorithmic approach to align each viral sequence against a species-wide reference sequence.
• BLAST reference selection: Uses BLAST searches to identify the most suitable reference when a species-specific reference is unavailable.
• Pre-alignment across genera: Produces pre-aligned sequences across different genera to facilitate comparative and evolutionary studies.
• Reference sourcing: Leverages NCBI RefSeq to source and validate reference sequences.
• Sequence analysis toolset: Provides a suite of sequence analysis tools derived from methodologies used in the Los Alamos HIV database.

Scientific Applications:

• Comparative studies: Enables cross-species and cross-genus comparisons of hemorrhagic fever virus sequences.
• Evolutionary analysis: Supports phylogenetic and evolutionary investigations of highly variable and rapidly evolving hemorrhagic fever viruses.
• Vaccine and drug design research: Supplies aligned and annotated sequence data to inform vaccine and antiviral candidate development.
• Variation analysis: Facilitates study of sequence diversity and mutation patterns within and between hemorrhagic fever virus species.

Methodology:

Each sequence is aligned to a species-wide reference sequence; when no reference exists a BLAST search identifies a candidate reference, sequences are pre-aligned across genera, and NCBI RefSeq is used as a reference source.