病毒及其分类单元名称的词源学分析

Etymological analysis of virus names and virus taxa names

目的系统性分析总结现有病毒名、病毒分类单元名的词汇特征和规律。方法主要从国际病毒分类委员会(ICTV)所发布的基于7个主要分类阶元(域、界、门、纲、目、科、属)层级合计1709个病毒分类单元名展开词汇特征解析和词源分析;对以系统抽样法获得的168个病毒种名和171个病毒名以及以整群随机抽样法获得的317个宏基因组来源病毒名进一步进行词汇含义及其结构特征解析。结果种以上病毒分类单元名呈现统一的词根+后缀的构词特征,后缀具有较好的分类阶元区分度,词根则内涵丰富且形式多样。病毒种名和病毒名由合成法构成,为修饰语+核心词形式,尚无统一规范。目前宏基因组来源新病毒亦主要遵循现有命名规则。结论基于15个分类阶元的病毒分类与命名框架,如何整合病毒遗传学特征元素,发展一套系统性的简便高效的规范化命名系统,以适应宏病毒组学时代下日益剧增的新病毒命名需求,仍是全球病毒学研究领域亟待解决的重要问题。

Objective To systematically analyze and summaries the etymological characteristics of virus names and taxa names.Methods 1709 virus taxa names in seven major ranks(realm,kingdom,phylum,class,order,family,and genus),were extracted from the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses(ICTV)database for etymological analyses.The structural features of 168 species and 171 virus names retrieved using systematic sampling,and 317 metagenomic virus names obtained by cluster random sampling were analyzed.Results All virus taxa names except the species present the same root-suffix combinations.The suffixes were rank-specific,and the roots had rich implications and diversity of forms.Meanwhile,species and virus names were composed synthetically in a modifier-head format without unified rules.The naming of new viruses discovered through metagenomic studies still follows the existing nomenclature system.Conclusions In the metagenomics era,discovery of enormous new viruses presents a huge challenge in development of an efficient and standardized virus nomenclature system.Based on the 15-rank classification hierarchy,integration of special and complex viral genetic properties might be worth exploring further.