ArticleNature2016
Uncovering Earth's virome.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 629 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
629 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 1,240 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Review
- Small viruses reveal bidirectional evolution between HK97-fold viruses and encapsulins via procapsids.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Revisiting the life cycle of temperate phages.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Spatial heterogeneity of viral communities across the gastrointestinal tracts of ruminants.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- Virobiome-mediated regulation of microbiota-gut-brain axis signaling and neuroimmune homeostasis.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- Elevation-structured viral ecological strategies along glacier-fed rivers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Phage as a prospective arsenal against superbugs.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Preparation method shapes the recovery and ecological interpretation of DNA and RNA soil viral communities.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Disentangling production and persistence of extracellular virions in grassland soils with SIP-viromics.mSystems · 2026Article
- Invertebrates gut viromes mediate microbial adaptation to pharmaceutical diversity under warming.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Mining viruses in public databases unveils the diversity within the Deltaflexiviridae family.Archives of virology · 2026Article
- Metagenomic Characterization and Molecular Screening of Pathogens in Freshwater Amphipods (Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Metavirome Analysis of Viruses Carried by Dairy Cows in Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, China.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Human Gut Phageome Analysis Uncovers Thousands of Highly Modular Endolysins.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Article
- Defect-complementation homologous recombination: A novel strategy for precise genome engineering of virulent phages.Synthetic and systems biotechnology · 2026Article
- Metaviromic Profiling of Genetic Diversity and Prevalence of Suid Herpesviruses Circulating in China.Viruses · 2026Article
- DNA viruses are constrained to ecological niches and share similar environmental adaptations with hosts.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Virome diversity, evolution, transmission networks, and zoonotic potential of wildlife on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Insights from healthy mares reveal that mammalian uteri harbor a diverse virome.Scientific reports · 2026Article
569 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth, but challenges in detecting, isolating, and classifying unknown viruses have prevented exhaustive surveys of the global virome. Here we analysed over 5 Tb of metagenomic sequence data from 3,042 geographically diverse samples to assess the global distribution, phylogenetic diversity, and host specificity of viruses. We discovered over 125,000 partial DNA viral genomes, including the largest phage yet identified, and increased the number of known viral genes by 16-fold. Half of the predicted partial viral genomes were clustered into genetically distinct groups, most of which included genes unrelated to those in known viruses. Using CRISPR spacers and transfer RNA matches to link viral groups to microbial host(s), we doubled the number of microbial phyla known to be infected by viruses, and identified viruses that can infect organisms from different phyla. Analysis of viral distribution across diverse ecosystems revealed strong habitat-type specificity for the vast majority of viruses, but also identified some cosmopolitan groups. Our results highlight an extensive global viral diversity and provide detailed insight into viral habitat distribution and host–virus interactions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.