An impressive new study has cataloged thousands of distinct viral species living in the human gut. The vast majority are unknown to science and resear

Over 40,000 previously unknown viruses found in the human gut microbiome

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2021-06-25 02:00:04

An impressive new study has cataloged thousands of distinct viral species living in the human gut. The vast majority are unknown to science and researchers suggest understanding the novel interactions between bacteria and viruses in our microbiome could help develop future therapeutic treatments for disease.

Over the last few years most microbiome research has focused on how the bacteria living in our gut influence our health. But our microbiome consists of much more than bacteria. Unique populations of parasites, viruses and fungi also live inside us.

Last year a team of researchers published one of the first catalogs of gut viral populations, called the Gut Virome Database. That study detailed more than 33,000 unique viral populations.

Now an international team of researchers has created an even larger gut virome database, analyzing nearly 12,000 fecal samples from subjects spanning 24 countries. The research identified 54,118 unique viral species.

“Remarkably (but perhaps predictably), more than 90 percent of these viral species are new to science,” write Philip Hugenholtz and Soo Jen Low, two University of Queensland (UQ) researchers working on the project. “They collectively encode more than 450,000 distinct proteins – a huge reservoir of functional potential that may either be beneficial or detrimental to their microbial, and in turn human, hosts.”

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