Tens of millions of viruses that are still unknown or poorly understood can lead to diseases, including potential pandemics, and impact the well-being of terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
A new initiative has been launched by an international team to delve into the ‘virosphere,’ encompassing all the genetic material of viruses and bacteriophages (viruses that target bacteria) worldwide.
The project, outlined in the GigaScience journal, involves a collaboration between researchers from Flinders University’s Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration (FAME) and Professor Scott Handley from Washington University. They aim to study viruses in human populations and coral reefs to develop a reliable method for identifying viruses in various organisms and environments. The project, led by microbiologist Professor Robert Edwards and marine microbial biologist Professor Elizabeth Dinsdale, utilized advanced metagenome testing to analyze viruses in a large UK faecal sample collection. They also examined viral data from mucus coatings obtained from coral reefs in Bermuda.
Professor Robert Edwards, an expert in Bioinformatics and Human Microbiology, highlighted the tremendous diversity of viruses on Earth and emphasized the importance of accurately identifying and annotating viral sequences, which is still in its early stages.
Named ‘Hecatomb’ after an Ancient Greek ritual of sacrificing animals, the project seeks to filter out genomic sequences to identify new viruses specific to each virome and establish a disease ‘signature.’
Professor Scott Handley, a Pathology and Immunology expert from Washington University, mentioned that the Hecatomb project offers insight into viruses and bacteriophages linked to diseases like inflammatory bowel diseases.
The initiative, spearheaded by South Australian bioinformatician Dr. Michael Roach, aims to investigate unique viruses and their potential impact on common conditions such as irritable bowel disease, as well as explore ways to protect coral reefs from bleaching or pollution.
Dr. Roach, affiliated with Flinders University, highlighted the capability of their virus pipeline to identify disease-related signatures in metagenome samples, even across different households.
Moreover, Professor Dinsdale emphasized the importance of improved metagenome databases and analysis pipelines to understand the virosphere and safeguard species amid climate change and biodiversity decline.
The study authored by Michael J Roach, Sarah J Beecroft, Kathie A Mihindukulasuriya, Leran Wang, Anne Paredes, Luis Alberto Chica Cárdenas, Kara Henry-Cocks, Lais Farias Oliveira Lima, Elizabeth A Dinsdale, Robert A Edwards, and Scott A Handley titled ‘Hecatomb: an integrated software platform for viral metagenomics’ has been released in GigaScience.
Acknowledgements: The study received support from grants from the US National Institutes of Health (RC2 DK116713 and U01 AI151810) awarded to Prof Edwards and Prof Handley with Dr. Roach backed by a Flinders University Impact Seed research grant.
