A strain identification tool for viruses

Genome epidemiology, which uses genomic data to trace the source and spread of infectious diseases, provides important information beyond interview-based methods. Given the fast accumulation of viral sequencing data, a basic need in genome epidemiology is identifying which reference genomes are identical or closest to the ones in a sequenced sample. VirStrain can detect the most likely strain, as well as multiple strains that may simultaneously infect the host. Our experimental results show that VirStrain outperforms other strain identification tools and is very efficient.