Pole-to-pole study of ocean life identifies nearly 200,000 marine viruses
Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 12:00
in Biology & Nature
An international team has conducted the first-ever global survey of the ecological diversity of viruses in the oceans during expeditions aboard a single sailboat. They identified nearly 200,000 marine viral species, which vastly exceeds the 15,000 known from prior ocean surveys of these waters and the approximately 2,000 genomes available from cultured viruses of microbes. Their findings have implications for understanding issues ranging from evolution to climate change.