‍Recently，the article Redefining The Invertebrate RNA Virosphere guided by National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease and Prevention has been published on Nature. Over 6 years’ study, the researchers have found 1,445 new RNA viruses which greatly enrich the diversity of RNA viruses.‍

Viruses, be called as “dark matter in life science”, have the strongest genomic diversity and the highest mutation rate among the known creatures. The confirmed kinds of viruses recorded by the 9th Report of International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) in 2011 were 2,284 (Including DNA and RNA viruses). Thus, merely from the perspective of quantity, this research has a great significance. Because of the great differences with the known viruses, some viruses can be defined as new picornavirus.

Yongzhen ZHANG, a researcher at National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention of China, said that the result of this study has filled the main vacancy in viral evolution. It concatenates the fragmented knowledge of viruses in the past and embodies the continuity between the picornavirus and virales.

Moreover, they found the great differences between the new viruses and the known viruses, such as some viruses which just had polymerase genes without nucleoprotein genes and glycoprotein genes. This finding reveals the great flexibility in viral genome which include the frequent recombination, horizontal gene transfer between viruses and host, gene gains and losses and complex genome rearrangements.

Besides, there were innovative breakthroughs in techniques. Usually, scientists study on DNA through metagenomics sequencing. However, the research team extracted RNA through transcriptome. They also use new methods in sample processing which made the RNA in viruses not be degraded. The new way has also been used in the recognition of viruses.

Time:2016-11-24

Source: www.chinanews.com