Help & Tutorial

Getting Started

AquaVir-KB is a comprehensive knowledge base for viruses infecting aquatic invertebrates. You can search, browse, and download data without any registration.

  1. Search: Type a virus name (e.g. "White spot syndrome virus"), host (e.g. "Penaeus"), accession (e.g. "NC_003225"), or family (e.g. "Nimaviridae") in the search bar.
  2. Browse: Use the Viruses, Hosts, or Taxonomy links to explore the database by category.
  3. Filter: On the search page, use the filters (phylum, family, genome completeness, country) to narrow results.
  4. Download: Bulk download FASTA sequences, metadata tables, and evidence records from the Download page — all under CC BY 4.0.

API Access

AquaVir-KB provides a REST API for programmatic access. Full documentation is available at /docs (Swagger UI).

Quick examples:

# Search for viruses
curl "https://aquavirdb.com/api/search?q=white+spot&page=1&page_size=10"

# Get virus detail
curl "https://aquavirdb.com/api/virus/NC_003225"

# Get statistics
curl "https://aquavirdb.com/api/stats"

# Download all sequences
wget "https://aquavirdb.com/api/download/all_sequences.fasta"

Key Features

  • BLAST Search: Run BLASTP/BLASTX against RdRp proteins — RdRp BLAST
  • Phylogeny: Interactive phylogenetic trees for virus families — Phylogeny
  • Geographic Map: Visualize virus distribution by country — Map
  • Host-Virus Network: Interactive bipartite network of host-virus associations — Network
  • Statistics: Comprehensive database statistics and charts — Statistics

Data Formats

FASTANucleotide/protein sequences, gzip-compatible
XLSXMicrosoft Excel format for metadata and evidence tables
CSVComma-separated values for network graphs and tabular data
TSVTab-separated values for evidence records

Citing AquaVir-KB

If you use AquaVir-KB in your research, please cite our paper and the database URL. See the About page for complete citation information and the Download page for the CITATION.cff file.