[Methodological approaches to decreasing the number of markers for the numerical classification of viruses]

Three methodical approaches were used for reduction of the number of markers necessary for division of viruses into groups corresponding to certain families. Division of the markers into groups characterizing various properties of virions and their components as well as certain stages of virus reproduction in sensitive systems allowed some groups of markers to be excluded without losing the informative value of the marker set. The use of correlationships between markers helped to replace 64 initial parameters with 26 factors. The employment of the method of major components demonstrated the possibility of further reduction of the size of space in which virus clustering is done.