title: Comparative genomic analysis of the family Iridoviridae: re-annotating and defining the core set of iridovirus genes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Members of the family Iridoviridae can cause severe diseases resulting in significant economic and environmental losses. Very little is known about how iridoviruses cause disease in their host. In the present study, we describe the re-analysis of the Iridoviridae family of complex DNA viruses using a variety of comparative genomic tools to yield a greater consensus among the annotated sequences of its members.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A series of genomic sequence comparisons were made among, and between the Ranavirus and Megalocytivirus genera in order to identify novel conserved ORFs. Of these two genera, the Megalocytivirus genomes required the greatest number of altered annotations. Prior to our re-analysis, the Megalocytivirus species orange-spotted grouper iridovirus and rock bream iridovirus shared 99% sequence identity, but only 82 out of 118 potential ORFs were annotated; in contrast, we predict that these species share an identical complement of genes. These annotation changes allowed the redefinition of the group of core genes shared by all iridoviruses. Seven new core genes were identified, bringing the total number to 26.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our re-analysis of genomes within the Iridoviridae family provides a unifying framework to understand the biology of these viruses. Further re-defining the core set of iridovirus genes will continue to lead us to a better understanding of the phylogenetic relationships between individual iridoviruses as well as giving us a much deeper understanding of iridovirus replication. In addition, this analysis will provide a better framework for characterizing and annotating currently unclassified iridoviruses.
authors.affiliation: Trent University, Department of Biology, Peterborough, ON, Canada. heathereaton@trentu.ca
authors.forename: Heather E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Eaton
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Metcalf
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Penny
authors.forename: Vasily
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tcherepanov
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Upton
authors.forename: Craig R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Brunetti
mesh_terms: D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D007497:Iridoviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*