The Global Landscape of Publicly Available Norovirus Sequences: Genotype Annotations, Genome Completeness, and Geographic Representation

Background and Objectives: In the present work, we assessed genotype annotations, genome completeness, and geographic representation of norovirus in the National Center for Biotechnology Information Virus database. Methods: We analyzed metadata for 70,632 complete and partial norovirus sequence records retrieved on 17 August 2026. Major capsid protein (VP1) genotypes and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) types were extracted from deposited annotations. Genome completeness and geographic distribution were summarized descriptively, and 55 selected complete genomes underwent phylogenetic analysis. Results: GII.4 was the most frequently annotated specific VP1 genotype (18,503 records). Specific VP1 and RdRp assignments were unavailable in the analyzed annotations for 24,804 (35.12%) and 51,892 (73.47%) records, respectively. Only 1,859 records (2.63%) were annotated as complete genomes. Country metadata were available for 65,915 records (93.32%), of which Asia contributed 56.15%. The selected phylogeny showed broad genogroup clustering, with three animal-associated genomes belonging to GIV and GVI. Conclusion: This repository snapshot identified limited complete-genome representation, incomplete typing annotations, and uneven geographic representation. These findings describe deposited records rather than population prevalence. Improved genome coverage, annotation consistency, and metadata availability could support more informative comparative analyses.