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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins
Published on: June 11, 2015
Curated list of prokaryote viruses with fully sequenced genomes
Hans-W Ackermann1, Andrew M Kropinski
1Felix d'Herelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses, Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Québec, QC G1K 7P4, Canada. ackermann@mcb.ulaval.ca
Abstract:
Genome sequencing is of enormous importance for classification of prokaryote viruses and for understanding the evolution of these viruses. This survey covers 284 sequenced viruses for which a full description has been published and for which the morphology is known. This corresponds to 219 (4%) of tailed and 75 (36%) of tailless viruses of prokaryotes. The number of sequenced tailless viruses almost doubles if viruses of unknown morphology are counted. The sequences are from representatives of 15 virus families and three groups without family status, including eight taxa of archaeal viruses. Tailed phages, especially those with large genomes and hosts other than enterobacteria or lactococci, mycobacteria and pseudomonads, are vastly under investigated.
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