Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 19, 2026

PhagesDB

The Actinobacteriophage database, more commonly known as PhagesDB, is a bioinformatics website that collects and shares information related to the discovery, characterization, and genomics of viruses that typically infect Actinobacteria. At the start of 2026, the database contained information on more than 30,000 bacteriophages (phages), as well as over 5,000 fully sequenced phages.

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Jun 19, 2026
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Actinobacteriophage Database
FoundedApril 2010
Location
  • Pittsburgh Bacteriophage Institute at the University of Pittsburgh
Members20,366 (as of 3/15/2022)
Key people
Dr. Graham Hatfull (HHMI Professor), Dan Russell (Webmaster), Debbie Jacobs-Sera (Phagehunting Program Coordinator), Dr. Welkin H. Pope (Research Assistant Professor), and Dr. Viknesh Sivanathan (HHMI Program Officer)
AffiliationsSEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science)
Websitephagesdb.org
Plaque exhibiting bacterial lawn with clearings made by Artharobacter phage GantcherGoblin. source ↗

The Actinobacteriophage database, more commonly known as PhagesDB, is a bioinformatics website that collects and shares information related to the discovery, characterization, and genomics of viruses that typically infect Actinobacteria.1 At the start of 2026, the database contained information on more than 30,000 bacteriophages (phages), as well as over 5,000 fully sequenced phages.2

Design and features

PhagesDB has individual entries for each different virus in the database, along with a separate GeneMark page,3 as well as amino-acid information about phage genomes.45 The table below indicates the different types (by bacterial host genus) and numbers of phages sequenced:2

Phage Types Sequenced Number Sequenced
Actinoplanes 1
Arthrobacter 674
Brevibacterium 3
Corynebacterium 33
Curtobacterium 54
Gordonia 873
Microbacterium 780
Mycobacterium 2702
Propionibacterium 57
Rhodococcus 75
Rothia 1
Streptomyces 420
Tetrasphaera 1
Tsukamurella 2

Access and rights to data

Information published in this database can be freely viewed by anyone, and an Application Programming Interface (API) is available.6 PhagesDB keeps some unpublished data, including newly performed genomic sequences.7

See also

See also

References

References

  1. Russell DA, Hatfull GF (1 March 2017). "PhagesDB: the actinobacteriophage database". Bioinformatics. 33 (5): 784–786. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btw711. PMC 5860397. PMID 28365761.
  2. "The Actinobacteriophage Database Homepage". Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  3. Russell, Daniel A.; Hatfull, Graham F. (2017-03-01). "PhagesDB: the actinobacteriophage database". Bioinformatics. 33 (5): 784–786. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btw711. ISSN 1367-4803. PMC 5860397. PMID 28365761.
  4. "Phamerator". phamerator.org. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  5. Cresawn, S.G. (2011). "Phamerator: a bioinformatic tool for comparative bacteriophage genomics". BMC Bioinform. 12 395. doi:10.1186/1471-2105-12-395. PMC 3233612. PMID 21991981.
  6. "Swagger UI". phagesdb.org. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  7. "The Actinobacteriophage Database | Terms of Use". phagesdb.org. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
External links