ReviewNature microbiology2025
A call for caution in the biological interpretation of viral auxiliary metabolic genes.
Review in Nature microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
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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
33 citing papers in PubMed.
- Virome DNA stable isotope probing reveals diverse active soil virus communities across ecosystem contexts.mSystems · 2026Article
- The role of phages in plant-associated microbial communities.Essays in biochemistry · 2026Review
- Exploring the ecological drivers of bacteriophage diversity and functional viral potential in the skin of the axolotl Ambystoma altamirani.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Elevation-structured viral ecological strategies along glacier-fed rivers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Hawaiian geothermal fumaroles contain diverse and novel viruses.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Carbohydrate-active enzymes of soil prophages enhance global carbon cycling potential.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Salinity-driven niche partitioning of aquatic viruses in one of Europe's largest estuaries.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Toxic Relationships: Characterization of a Putative Virally Encoded Toxin in the Thermophilic Archaeal Fusellovirus SSV1.Viruses · 2026Article
- Insights Gained by High-throughput Chromosome Conformation Capture (Hi-C) into the Viral Modulation of Methane Production in Anaerobic Digestion.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Article
- Metagenomic Analysis of Rural Groundwater Viromes Reveals Bacteriophage Contributions to Groundwater Microbial Ecology.Microbial ecology · 2026Article
- Viral community dynamics and functional succession in advanced drinking water treatment processes.Archives of microbiology · 2026Article
- Comprehensive analyses of archaeal viral genomes reveal genomic characteristics, divergence, and host interactions.Microbiome · 2026Article
- The human skin virome: Ecological dynamics, aberrant profiles, and therapeutic opportunities.Cell host & microbe · 2026Review
- Animal gut microbes and microbiomes in the 21st century and beyond.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- The honey bee triad: a comprehensive catalogue of phages in the Apis mellifera gut microbiome.Nature communications · 2026Article
- V- and VNature communications · 2026Article
- Gut virome-microbiome interactions across hosts and environments.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Hawaiian Geothermal Fumaroles Contain Diverse and Novel Viruses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) are non-essential genes that increase viral fitness by maintaining or manipulating host metabolism during infection. AMGs are intriguing from an evolutionary perspective, as most viral genomes are highly compact and have limited coding capacity for accessory genes. Advances in viral (meta)genomics have expanded the detection of putative AMGs from viruses in diverse environments. However, this has also led to many instances of misannotation due to the limitations of annotation tools, resulting in misinterpretations about the roles of some viral genes. Here, we highlight studies that support claims about AMGs with more than just function predictions for guidance on best practices. We then propose the adoption of an expanded, inclusive view of all genes auxiliary to core viral functions with the term 'auxiliary viral genes' (AVGs), alongside an associated eco-evolutionary framework for considering the types of analyses that can better support claims made about AVGs.
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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.