Figure 3: Summary of the proposed classification pipeline.
The proposed classification pipeline (red arrows) enables both metagenomic sequence data and conventionally derived virus sequences to be classified. Inferred biological properties that are obtained by bioinformatic analysis of virus sequences together with information on sequence relatedness and gene content, and, optionally, any observed biological properties (dotted line), may all be used as defining criteria for species and higher rank taxonomic assignment in the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) taxonomy. This procedure differs from current (green arrows) and previous practice (blue arrows), in which biological data and/or host information and sequence data (current), or biological data alone (1970s–1990s), were required for classification.
