The Influenza Research Database (IRD) is a U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-sponsored Bioinformatics Resource Center dedicated to providing bioinformatics support for influenza virus research. IRD facilitates the research and development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics against influenza virus by providing a comprehensive collection of influenza-related data integrated from various sources, a growing suite of analysis and visualization tools for data mining and hypothesis generation, personal workbench spaces for data storage and sharing, and active user community support. Here, we describe the recent improvements in IRD including the use of cloud and high performance computing resources, analysis and visualization of user-provided sequence data with associated metadata, predictions of novel variant proteins, annotations of phenotype-associated sequence markers and their predicted phenotypic effects, hemagglutinin (HA) clade classifications, an automated tool for HA subtype numbering conversion, linkouts to disease event data and the addition of host factor and antiviral drug components. All data and tools are freely available without restriction from the IRD website at https://www.fludb.org.

Several viruses within the Coronaviridae family have been categorized as either emerging or re-emerging human pathogens, with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) being the most well known. The NIAID-sponsored Virus Pathogen Database and Analysis Resource (ViPR, ) supports bioinformatics workflows for a broad range of human virus pathogens and other related viruses, including the entire Coronaviridae family. ViPR provides access to sequence records, gene and protein annotations, immune epitopes, 3D structures, host factor data, and other data types through an intuitive web-based search interface. Records returned from these queries can then be subjected to web-based analyses including: multiple sequence alignment, phylogenetic inference, sequence variation determination, BLAST comparison, and metadata-driven comparative genomics statistical analysis. Additional tools exist to display multiple sequence alignments, view phylogenetic trees, visualize 3D protein structures, transfer existing reference genome annotations to new genomes, and store or share results from any search or analysis within personal private ‘Workbench’ spaces for future access. All of the data and integrated analysis and visualization tools in ViPR are made available without charge as a service to the Coronaviridae research community to facilitate the research and development of diagnostics, prophylactics, vaccines and therapeutics against these human pathogens.

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Species in Neofabraea, Pezicula, and related genera have been reported as saprobes, plant pathogens or endophytes from a wide range of hosts. The asexual morphs of Neofabraea and Pezicula had been placed in Cryptosporiopsis, now a synonym of Pezicula, while Neofabraea was also linked to Phlyctema. Based on morphology and molecular data of the partial large subunit nrDNA (LSU), the internal transcribed spacer region with intervening 5.8S nrDNA (ITS), partial β-tubulin region (tub2), and the partial RNA polymerase II second largest subunit region (rpb2), the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of these fungi were investigated. Five new species were described in Pezicula based on morphology, while a further eight unnamed phylogenetic lineages revealed further diversity in the genus. Based on these results, the generic concept of Neofabraea was also emended. Phlyctema, which was previously associated with Neofabraea, formed a distinct clade, separate from Neofabraea s. str. Two new neofabraea-like genera, Parafabraea and Pseudofabraea were proposed, along with one new combination in Neofabraea s. str. To stabilise the application of these names, an epitype was designated for Pe. carpinea, the type species of Pezicula, and for N. malicorticis, the type species of Neofabraea.

Plant potyviruses encode two membrane proteins, 6K and P3. The 6K protein has been shown to induce virus replication vesicles. However, the function of P3 remains unclear. In this study, subcellular localization of the Tobacco etch virus (TEV) P3 protein was investigated in Nicotiana benthamiana leaf cells. The TEV P3 protein localized on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane and formed punctate inclusions in association with the Golgi apparatus. The trafficking of P3 to the Golgi was mediated by the early secretory pathway. The Golgi-associated punctate structures originated from the ER exit site (ERES). Deletion analyses identified P3 domains required for the retention of P3 at the Golgi. Moreover, the P3 punctate structure was found to traffic along the actin filaments and colocalize with the 6K-containing replication vesicles. Taken together, these data support previous suggestions that P3 may play dual roles in virus movement and replication.