virsorter

virsorter identifies DNA and RNA viral sequences in metagenomic and metatranscriptomic datasets to detect viral diversity and support ecological and evolutionary analyses.

Key Features:

• Genome-informed databases: Leverages genome-informed databases and customized automatic classifiers to improve detection across diverse viral groups.
• High accuracy: Reports high performance on benchmarked isolated and uncultivated viral genomes with an F1-score greater than 0.8 and detects viruses beyond well-represented groups such as Caudovirales.
• Reduction of false positives from cellular sequences: Minimizes misclassification of atypical cellular sequences including eukaryotic genomes and plasmids.
• Modular classifier design: Uses a modular architecture that allows addition or refinement of classifiers as new viral sequences are discovered.
• Applicability to diverse viral groups: Detects a broad spectrum of DNA and RNA viruses, including uncultivated viral taxa, across metagenomic and metatranscriptomic datasets.

Scientific Applications:

• Virus evolution studies: Enables identification of diverse viral sequences for tracing evolutionary relationships among viruses.
• Ecosystem and microbiome analysis: Facilitates study of virus–microbe interactions and viral diversity across environmental and host-associated ecosystems.
• Pathogen discovery: Supports discovery of novel viral pathogens through broad detection of DNA and RNA viral sequences.

Methodology:

Implements a multi-classifier approach that integrates genome-informed databases with customized classifiers.