Figure 1. Motif fingerprinting of viruses. The Flavivirus genus comprises species responsible for several emerging and re-emerging diseases. The short replication times and high mutation rates of these viruses have hampered attempts to isolate genome segments that can be associated with their origin, form of transmission, and pathogenesis. A computational survey of all available sequence information for this genus identified species-specific protein motifs fingerprints. The presence of these genomic elements forms binary patterns that provide a new framework for taxonomical classification.