title: Virus Variation Resource - improved response to emergent viral outbreaks.
abstract: The Virus Variation Resource is a value-added viral sequence data resource hosted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The resource is located at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/viruses/variation/ and includes modules for seven viral groups: influenza virus, Dengue virus, West Nile virus, Ebolavirus, MERS coronavirus, Rotavirus A and Zika virus Each module is supported by pipelines that scan newly released GenBank records, annotate genes and proteins and parse sample descriptors and then map them to controlled vocabulary. These processes in turn support a purpose-built search interface where users can select sequences based on standardized gene, protein and metadata terms. Once sequences are selected, a suite of tools for downloading data, multi-sequence alignment and tree building supports a variety of user directed activities. This manuscript describes a series of features and functionalities recently added to the Virus Variation Resource.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
authors.forename: Eneida L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Hatcher
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
authors.forename: Sergey A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Zhdanov
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
authors.forename: Yiming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Blinkova
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
authors.forename: Eric P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Nawrocki
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ostapchuck
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
authors.forename: Alejandro A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Schäffer
authors.affiliation: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA jamesbr@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
authors.forename: J Rodney
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Brister
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D014644:Genetic Variation; D012984:Software; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics*