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patella.whack writes:

Using a specially designed computational tool as a lure, scientists have netted the genomic sequences of almost 12,500 previously uncharacterized viruses from public databases.

ScienceDaily reports on an recently accepted manuscript in eLife:

Finding a treasure trove of new virus genome sequences has opened the door to using those data to identify previously unknown microbial hosts, as well. These new possibilities are attributed to VirSorter, a computational tool [which] scoured public databases of sequenced microbial genomes.

"We can survey a lot of environments to find new viruses, but the challenge has been answering, who do they infect?...[W]e can explore that viral-host linkage. That's a really important part of the equation."

Though viruses are generally thought to take over whatever organism they invade, [we] identified a few viruses, called prophages, which coexist with their host microbes and even produce genes that help the host cells compete and survive.

"That is a really different and largely unexplored phenomenon. [It] appears quite widespread, and virtually nobody is studying these kinds of viruses."

Original Submission