Seawater samples provide a treasure trove of viral RNA data

Seawater samples collected worldwide have provided a treasure trove of new data on RNA viruses that have expanded the possibilities of environmental research and changed our understanding of how these tiny but critical submicroscopic particles evolved.

By combining machine learning tests with traditional evolutionary trees, an international team of researchers has identified 5,500 new RNA virus species, representing all five known RNA virus filets, and suggested that at least five fresh RNA virus filets are needed to capture them.

The richest collection of newly identified species belongs to the type the researcher proposes to call the Taraviricota, in homage to the source of the 35,000 water samples that made analysis possible: the Tara Oceans Consortium, an ongoing global study aboard the schooner Tara of climate change in the world's oceans.

"There's so much new diversity here -- and an entire species, the taraviricota, has been found in all of the oceans, suggesting it's important for the environment," said lead author Matthew Sullivan.

"RNA viruses are important in our world, but we usually study only a fraction of them -- a few hundred, which are harmful to humans, plants, and animals. We want to study them systematically on an immense scale and explore environments that have never been seen before." anyone. We're lucky because almost every species is new and many are entirely new.

The study appears online (April 7, 2022) in Science.

While microbes are essential benefactors to all life on the planet, the viruses that contaminate or interact with them have different effects on microbial function. This type of virus is thought to have three main tasks:

• Killing cells. 
• Changing the way infected cells handle energy.
• Transferring genes from one host to another.

Knowing more about the diversity also abundance of viruses in the world's oceans will help clarify the role of marine microbes in ocean transformation to climate change, also the researchers said. The oceans absorb half of the artificial carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Previous research in this group has shown that marine viruses are the 'handle' of the biological pump that influences how carbon is stored in the ocean.