Virus Taxonomy: Seventh Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses

Universal, unambiguous virus taxonomy (naming and categorization) is vital for distinguishing the thousands of viruses which have been isolated from humans, animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and archae. Before an official identification and classification system was devised, there was much confusion and duplication of viruses isolated in different labs around the world. The first internationally organized attempts to introduce some order in the bewildering variety of viruses took place at the International Congress of Microbiology held in Moscow in 1966. A committee, later called The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), was given the task of developing a single, universal taxonomic scheme for all the viruses.
This is the seventh report produced by the ICTV and builds on the accumulated taxonomic data of its predecessors and records the proceedings of the Committee since 1995, including decisions reached at the Tenth International Congress of Virology held in Jerusalem in 1996, and at mid-term meetings in 1997 and 1998. The information is essential for anyone working in the field of virology. Clinicians in diagnostic laboratories, researchers citing viruses in published papers, and virologists in the business industry all must have the most updated virus taxonomy to make the appropriate references. The number of recognized viruses continues to grow with the development of better detection techniques, and the rapid evolution of virus variants.

Key Features
* The official reference for virus taxonomy and nomenclature
* Contains 30% new taxa, including two major new contributions on the phylogenetic relationships between viruses, and application of the virus species concept throughout the virus world
* Compiles information from 300-400 experts
* Covers over 4000 recognized viruses, organized by family, with diagrams of genome organization and virus replication cycle where know
* Includes over 300 figures and illustrations

Claude Fauquet is a renowned plant virologist that has now embarked on plant biotechnology for the last 10 years. Dr. Fauquet has extensive experience in field virology and epidemiology, but also in molecular and experimental virology. He is mostly interested in tropical plant viruses and particularly in geminiviruses that are devastating tropical crops. In 1991, he became Director of ILTAB (International Laboratory for Agricultural Biotechnology), a joint French-American project aiming at transferring plant biotechnologies to less developing countries.

Jack Maniloff is Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester. His research has elucidated the ultrastructure and molecular biology of mycoplasma cells and viruses. The latter studies were the beginning of mycoplasma virology and included description of several new virus taxa, first demonstration of restriction and modification in mycoplasmas, and development of the first method for genetic transfer in mycoplasmas. More recent studies have focused on the phylogeny of mycoplasma cells and viruses and chronology of the origin and evolution of microorganisms and their hosts. His awards include a USPHS-NIH Research Career Development Award, a Fogarty Senior International Fellowship, and the 2000 University of Heidelberg Lectureship in Molecular Mycoplasmology. Prof. Maniloff joined the ICTV as elected member in 1990, then as subcommittee chair in 1993 for the Porkaryote viruses and he became Vice-President of ICTV in 1999.

Born and schooled in London; graduated in Botany and then obtained a Ph.D at the University of Nottingham. Spent career in Virology Department at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (formerly the Scottish Horticultural Research Institute) at Dundee except for a sabbatical year in L'Institut de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg. Currently am an Honorary Research Fellow. During career I published 150 research papers and 85 reviews and book chapters. I have been involved as an editor for 8 books and I have been on several Editorial Boards as well as being Editor for Journal of General Virology, Archives of Virology and Journal of Plant Pathology. Served on the Executive Committee of ICTV for the last 17 years variously as Study Group Chair, Subcommittee Chair and latterly Secretary.