Norovirus Molecular Epidemiology Database

The norovirus database contains a collection of over 1,000 sequences of norovirus strains and associated epidemiological data collected over a period of more than 10 years by the Enteric Virus Unit. Data comprises partial sequences of genes encoding the RNA dependent RNA polymerase (ORF1) and the capsid (ORF2) as well as information on genotype, polymerase type, year of isolation, geographical location, age of patient and outbreak setting.

Polymerase Sequence Comparisons

The database can be searched by entering a norovirus polymerase gene sequence. The submitted sequence is compared initially with prototype strains of norovirus genogroups I and II and subsequently to the whole database. A sequence alignment is generated in which the prototype strain and four database strains with the highest degree of homology to the submitted sequence are highlighted. A dendrogram, generated from this data, may also be examined in order to determine the genogroup of the submitted sequence. The search can then be further refined through searching within either genogroup I or II database entries. A facility for searching capsid sequence data will soon be available. The epidemiological data associated with strains demonstrating the highest homology to the submitted sequence can be searched by clicking on the highlighted entries in the alignment.

Epidemiological comparisons

Strains in the database can also be compared on the basis of specific epidemiological criteria (age, country and outbreak setting). The epidemiological information is shown as a chart or a table. Sectors on the charts can be used to retrieve polymerase sequences from these strains.

• Norovirus strains by patient age
• Norovirus strains by country
• Norovirus strains by outbreak setting

Submissions to the norovirus database

Users can add to the database by providing sequence and epidemiological data as an e-mail attachment to Miren.Iturriza@hpa.org.uk. Sequence can be provided as *.fas, *.txt, *.abi or *.scf files, and the positions of the primers used should be indicated. Epidemiological data should include month and year of isolation, geographical location, outbreak setting and age and sex of the patient.

This database is curated by staff of the Enteric Virus Unit and the Bioinformatics Group of the Health Protection Agency. The use of this database should be acknowledged in any publication involving comparisons or searches of database entries.

Last reviewed: 18 August 2008