Evaluation of candidate viral taxa.

Viral taxon (species) hit rates from the NRVDB were compared between encephalitis brain samples (N = 7) and control brain samples (N = 14) using the Z-test. Displayed are viral taxa where corrected P<10−6 for at least one of the encephalitis samples. Reads aligning to comprehensive taxon-specific databases were examined to determine if they were of viral or human origin (see Methods). Hits to each taxon were assembled into contiguous sequences (contigs) using SSAKE.[14] The GenBank records with the greatest number of alignments were selected, and % GI covered is the amount of the GI covered at ≥ 1X. Taxa where contigs could be formed (i.e. HSV1 and measles) were subjected to further analysis by pathogen-specific amplification.