Virus Taxonomy Ninth Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (Ninth Report of ICTV) was published by Elsevier in October 2011. In the report, Lymphocystis disease virus isolated from China (LCDV-C) was listed as the typical strain of Iridoviridae [King AMQ et al., (eds). 2011, Ninth report of ICTV, Elsevier/Academic Press, pp196-210].  

LCDV-C was reported by the Research Group of Aquatic Virology (Principal Investigator: Prof. ZHANG Qiya) at Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) in 2004. The report included genome sizes, GC contents, number of genes, some coded enzymes and several other putative gene products. It also contained a phylogenetic tree constructed according to the conserved sequence from LCDV-C and other iridoviruses which have been reported the whole genome sequences. In the report of a ‘‘Marseille’’ virus from Boyer et al. (PNAS, 2009, 106, 21848–21853), LCDV-C and otherviruses from six different virus families were used in the alignment of DNA polymerases and major capsid proteins (see picture attached). These citations and introductions means that LCDV-C was the typical strain of iridoviruses as the reference resource of the identification of other lymphocystis disease viruses and iridoviruses, and promote people to widely explore the nature of nucleo-cytoplasmic large DNA viruses at the same time.  

The Research Group of Aquatic Virology of IHB focuses on aquatic virology and related molecular biology research. Some research results have been published in international journals of virology and molecular biology [Ke et al, 2011, BMC Genomics, 12:323; Kim et al, 2010, PLoS One, 5:e10308; Zhao et al, 2008, Journal of General Virology, 89: 1866-1872 (cover paper); Zhao et al, 2008, Virology, 372:118-126; Huang et al, 2007, Apoptosis, 12:1569-1577; Zhang et al, 2004, Journal of Virology, 78, 6982-6994]. Based on these research achievements, Prof. ZHANG Qiya was invited as one of iridovirus ICTV group members. The other membersare Jancovich JK (USA), Chinchar VG (USA), Hyatt A (Australia), Miyazaki T (Japan) and Williams T (Mexico).  

International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) is the only authoritative committee which is now recognized as the official international body that decides on all matters related to taxonomy and nomenclature of virus. In July, 1966, ICTV was created at the 9th International Congress for Microbiology. The ICTV report is published every five year. The first ICTV report was published in 1970. The eighth ICTV report was published in 2005, comprising 1259 pages. The ninth ICTV report comprises 1462 pages.