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Viral metagenomics.

Robert A Edwards¹, Forest Rohwer

¹Department of Biology, Center for Microbial Sciences, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, California 92182, USA.

Nature Reviews. Microbiology

|May 12, 2005

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Environmental virus identification is challenging due to uncultured hosts and lack of common genes. Metagenomic analysis of viral communities offers a solution to understand uncultured viral diversity and structure.

Area of Science:

Environmental microbiology
Virology
Genomics

Background:

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities, primarily infecting microorganisms.
Studying environmental viral communities is difficult because most microbial hosts are uncultured.
A universal gene marker for viral profiling, unlike ribosomal DNA for bacteria, is absent.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore the application of metagenomic analysis for studying uncultured viral communities.
To overcome limitations in identifying and measuring viral community dynamics in environmental samples.

Main Methods:

Metagenomic sequencing of environmental DNA.
Bioinformatic analysis of viral sequences.
Comparative analysis of viral community composition and structure.

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Main Results:

Metagenomics enables comprehensive analysis of viral communities, including uncultured viruses.
This approach circumvents the need for host cultivation or universal viral genes.
Insights into the composition and structure of complex environmental viral populations were gained.

Conclusions:

Metagenomic analysis is a powerful tool for assessing global viral diversity.
It provides a means to study the dynamics of previously uncharacterized viral ecosystems.
This methodology advances our understanding of the virosphere's role in environmental processes.