CryoVirusDB: An Annotated Dataset for AI-Based Virus Particle Identification in Cryo-EM Micrographs

With the advancements in instrumentation, image processing algorithms, and computational capabilities, single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has achieved atomic resolution in determining the 3D structures of viruses. The virus structures play a crucial role in studying their biological function and advancing the development of antiviral vaccines and treatments. Despite the effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) in general image processing, its development for identifying and extracting virus particles from cryo-EM micrographs has been hindered by the lack of manually labeled high-quality datasets. To fill the gap, we introduce CryoVirusDB, a labeled dataset containing the coordinates of expert-picked virus particles in cryo-EM micrographs. CryoVirusDB comprises 9941 micrographs from nine datasets representing seven distinct non-enveloped viruses exhibiting icosahedral or pseudo-icosahedral symmetry, along with coordinates of 339,398 labeled virus particles. It can be used to train and test AI and machine learning (e.g., deep learning) methods to accurately identify virus particles in cryo-EM micrographs for building atomic 3D structural models for viruses.