Academic groups from INSERM, Institut Pasteur-CNRS, PRABI and a bioinformatic company (Modul-Bio) have joined their efforts to build the ViralORFeome database.

Built on genome sequences retrieved from public databases, this web interface can be used to (i) design appropriate PCR primers to clone viral encoding sequences (ORFs), and (ii) to visualise annotations through an integrated genome browser.

The ViralOrfeome database is comprised of a reference collection of ORFs established into a recombination-based versatile cloning system that facilitates the transfer of viral ORFs from the collection into different expression vectors suitable for proteomic analyses (such as yeast two-hybrid, mass spectrometry, GFP-tagging, fusion protein...).

Clones containing viral ORFs can be requested from ORFeotheque (), an academic non-for-profit repository dedicated to the distribution of this virus ORF collection (charges applied when ordering plasmids are only a contribution we ask for the maintenance of the collection and the shipping of the plasmids).

INSERM and Institut Pasteur groups are also engaged in the large scale mapping of viral-host protein interactions (Infection MAPping project: I-MAP project).

Keywords : ViralORFeome, primers, clone collection, yeast-two hybrid, protein-protein interactions.

Please cite : ViralORFeome: an integrated database to generate a versatile collection of viral ORFs. Nucleic Acids Res. 2010 Jan;38(Database issue):D371-8. Epub 2009 Dec 8. [html][pdf]