VirusViz

VirusViz enables comparative analysis and visualization of viral sequences to support the study of viral evolution and variant characteristics.

Key Features:

• Variant Comparison: Compares variants across viral species including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, Dengue, and Ebola.
• Data Integration: Imports sequence data from ViruSurf and accepts user-provided multi-FASTA files with corresponding CSV metadata.
• Variant Extraction Pipeline: Processes inputs through a bioinformatic pipeline that extracts nucleotide and amino acid variants.
• Visualization Capabilities: Provides zooming, highlighting of specific variants or regions, and toggling between nucleotide and amino acid views.
• Metadata Summarization and Analysis: Summarizes metadata, supports grouping of sequences, and enables comparative analysis of variant distributions.
• Critical Mutation Identification: Incorporates a manually curated list of SARS-CoV-2 mutations with known or predicted severity/virulence from linked research articles and flags detected critical mutations.

Scientific Applications:

• Variant Tracking: Tracking viral mutations and the emergence of new variants within selected populations, including SARS-CoV-2.
• Virulence and Transmissibility Assessment: Assessing potential implications of specific mutations for virulence and transmissibility.
• Comparative Evolutionary Analysis: Comparative analysis of viral evolution across multiple species such as SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, Dengue, and Ebola.
• Public Health Surveillance: Supporting surveillance and monitoring efforts to inform public health strategies based on variant distributions and critical mutation detection.

Methodology:

Integrates sequence data from ViruSurf with user-provided multi-FASTA files and CSV metadata and processes them through a bioinformatic pipeline to extract nucleotide and amino acid variants for comparative analysis.