Advances in viral metagenomics

Abstract:

Viral metagenomics is a new approach to genomics research. With the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing technology, viral genomes from the environment can be quickly discovered, identified and described based on composition characteristics. In the past decade, many novel viruses have been discovered by viral metagenomics, enhancing the understanding of virus composition, distribution and diversity in different environments. Therefore, viral metagenomics has become an effective tool for clearly depicting the viral map in various special environments and understanding the distribution dynamics of viruses in nature. This article mainly summarizes the concept of virus metagenome, sample preparation and extraction method of virus total genome, sequencing technology, the application and development prospects of virus metagenome.

Key words:Viral metagenomics, Environmental microbes, High throughput sequencing, New virus identification