A NEW international study led by Flinders University has developed a pipeline to investigate viruses and bacteriophages associated with diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease.
This project, detailed in GigaScience journal, aims to identify and analyse viruses in various environments, including human populations and coral reefs.
The research involved deep metagenome testing of different viruses found in a large UK collection of fecal samples, identifying irregularities and variations in viral genomes.
This method was also applied to viral data from coral reef mucus coatings in Bermuda to demonstrate its flexibility.
Flinders' Prof Robert Edwards and Prof Elizabeth Dinsdale assisted in the project, which found a number of unique viruses.
The new pipeline, named Hecatomb, enables high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis to classify viral communities and understand their impact on diseases.
Dr Scott Handley from Washington University said, "we use the hecatomb pipeline to classify and test how alterations in viral community membership and function contribute to disease".
The study's findings offer a robust starting point for investigating how viruses influence health and environmental conditions, potentially aiding in disease understanding and environmental conservation - see more HERE. JG
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