NCBI Taxonomy: Upcoming Changes to Viruses

To reflect changes to the International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN) made by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), NCBI will add binomial species names to about 3000 viruses. These updates to NCBI Taxonomy are planned for spring 2025, but you can view the changes now in the ICTV’s Virus Metadata Resource. 

We recognize that the former species names like Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) are broadly used in public health, educational institutions, and research. To minimize the impact of this change on those who use NCBI resources, we will add the new binomial species names (e.g. Lentivirus humimdef1) while keeping the former names available in the lineage for each species. The former names will move below the new binomial species name in the taxonomy hierarchy, ensuring continuity. Examples are provided below.  

Taxonomy Identifiers (TaxIds) will remain the same and will continue to refer to the below-species names. For example, TaxId 11676 will still refer to HIV-1. Also, the taxon currently associated with a sequence record will still be displayed prominently on sequence records and BLAST® results. This rollout is similar to the one previously implemented for influenza viruses.  

What’s changing?

 Former lineages 

New lineages in spring 2025 

What to consider when accessing or submitting virus data at NCBI

• Taxonomy-Based Searches: In the taxonomy hierarchy, viral sequence records can be classified to a species or below-species taxon. If you want to retrieve all sequence records for a species, please search using the species name or TaxId. 
• Data Submissions: Viral data submission to GenBank, BioSample, and Sequence Read Archive (SRA) will remain the same. 

What’s next? 

We anticipate that over time the scientific community will become familiar with the new binomial species names and update taxonomy-dependent processes. After a transition period, we will evaluate merging the below-species and species-level ranks to make them synonymous where appropriate, recognizing some species names will present challenges. NCBI resources such as NCBI Datasets and NCBI Virus will incorporate updates to facilitate taxonomy-based searches, and NCBI will review the presentation of viral names in other resources. Our goal remains to make the NCBI Taxonomy treatment of viruses reflect the classifications determined by the ICTV while also supporting the needs of the scientific community.

Questions? 

Please reach out to us if you have questions or would like to provide feedback. 

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