Summary

Giant virus metagenome-assembled genomes (GVMAGs) and associated data from "Giant virus diversity and host interactions through global metagenomics"

The discovery of giant viruses with genomes in the megabase-range and equipped with a wide variety of features typically associated with cellular organisms was one of the most unexpected, intriguing and spectacular breakthroughs in virology. Most of our knowledge about these viruses came mainly from viral isolates derived from culturable protists and algae. Here we used cultivation-independent genome-resolved metagenomics which has led to the recovery of 2,074 novel giant virus genomes. The diversity of the discovered viruses and their coding potential revealed that giant viruses are highly abundant across Earth’s biomes where they likely impact biology and ecology of a wide-range of eukaryotic hosts and ultimately affect global nutrient cycles.

Methods

The NCLDV classifier described in the paper can be obtained here:
https://bitbucket.org/berkeleylab/mtg-gv-exp

References

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-1957-x