Guidelines for public database submission of uncultivated virus genome sequences for taxonomic classification

Mining data derived from high-throughput DNA or RNA sequencing approaches, including metagenomics, has led to the discovery of a multitude of uncultivated virus genome sequences. These sequences improve our knowledge about the representation of the global virosphere and fuel the expansion and refinement of virus taxonomy. Incorporation of these newly discovered viral sequences into high-quality reference databases adds a bottleneck to virology. For formal taxonomic classification, International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) guidelines stipulate that genome sequences must be available from a public database. However, the correct use of nomenclature and the inclusion of standardized metadata fields are just as important as the availability of sequence data to enable the use and reuse of the data by the global research community. Here, we present standards and recommendations for the submission of virus genome sequence data to public databases for the purpose of taxonomic classification...