November 1, 2008 (Vol. 28, No. 19)
URL:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/Ictv/index.htm
Rating:
Strong Points: Simple, superb organization
Weak Points: None
Summary:
You need to overlook the rather dumb title of this site to discover a mountain of useful information. When they say an Index of Viruses, they really mean it. Clicking on the virally shaped icon labeled All Names brings up a set of alphabetical lists of viruses that will knock your socks off. I’ll bet you didn’t even know that there was a Leek White Stripe Virus or a Moroccan Pepper Virus or hundreds of others peppering the site. The list of acronyms associated with each virus is equally long. If you seek viruses that infect a particular host, that option is also available, as is a sorting of viruses by the composition of their nucleic acids. The bottom line here is that there are a lot of viruses out there, and this index that contains them is as broad as the viruses themselves. Better yet, each of the links to individual viruses leads to an even bigger compilation of info about each one. This is one of the best if not the best virus site I’ve encountered to date.
