Viral metagenomics

Robert A. Edwards, Forest Rohwer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

685 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Viruses, most of which infect microorganisms, are the most abundant biological entities on the planet. Identifying and measuring the community dynamics of viruses in the environment is complicated because less than one percent of microbial hosts have been cultivated. Also, there is no single gene that is common to all viral genomes, so total uncultured viral diversity cannot be monitored using approaches analogous to ribosomal DNA profiling. Metagenomic analyses of uncultured viral communities circumvent these limitations and can provide insights into the composition and structure of environmental viral communities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)504-510
Number of pages7
JournalNATURE REVIEWS MICROBIOLOGY
Volume3
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2005
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Viral metagenomics'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this