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Updated: Apr 22, 2026

Purifying the Impure: Sequencing Metagenomes and Metatranscriptomes from Complex Animal-associated Samples
Published on: December 22, 2014
Navigating prokaryotic viral genome analysis from metagenomic data
Almut Werner1, Cynthia M Chibani1, Ruth A Schmitz1
1Institute for General Microbiology, Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany.
Abstract:
Viruses play crucial roles in microbial ecosystems, yet viromic analysis remains challenging due to the field's complexity and rapid evolution. This minireview supports non-specialists through the evolving landscape of viromics, focusing on the analysis of bacterial and archaeal DNA viruses from metagenomic data. We address major challenges, including viral diversity, methodological biases, and the overwhelming array of available tools and pipelines. While describing a typical viromic workflow, we provide users with background information for each of the steps from data acquisition, preprocessing, and quality control to viral characterization and common downstream analyses. The included references and resources will provide users with the information needed to confidently start their own virome analysis.
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