How does Viral Metagenomics Work
As known to all, most of the viruses infect microorganisms, plants, and animals. They cause familiar infectious diseases (such as the flu and warts) and even some severe illnesses such as smallpox, Ebola, and HIV/AIDS. Because less than one percent of microbial hosts have been cultivated, it is very vital to identify and measure the community dynamics of viruses in the environment. Unlike bacteria and fungi, there are no evolutionarily conserved genes, so it is not feasible to monitor viral diversity using approaches analogous to 16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing. Viral metagenomics can provide insights into the composition and structure of viral communities.
The workflow of viral metagenomics includes sample collection, virus-like particle purification, nucleic acid extraction, library preparation, and metagenomics sequencing. It is similar to metagenomics workflow, but they differ in some steps. First, it is essential to enrich virions. Second, for RNA viruses, viral RNAs need to be converted into cDNA.
Figure 1. Schematic representation illustrating the workflow for metagenomic analysis of viruses (Cholleti et al., 2018).Figure 1. Workflow diagram for metagenomic analysis of viruses (Cholleti et al. 2018).