Advantages and Limits of Metagenomic Assembly and Binning of a Giant Virus
Frederik Schulz, Julien Andréani, Rania Francis, Hadjer Boudjemaa, Jacques Bou Khalil, Janey Lee, Bernard La Scola, Tanja Woyke
Abstract
The discovery of large and giant nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) 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. Recent studies suggest that these viruses are highly abundant in the oceans, freshwater, and soil, impact the biology and ecology of their eukaryotic hosts, and ultimately affect global nutrient cycles. Genome-resolved metagenomics is becoming an increasingly popular tool to assess the diversity and coding potential of giant viruses, but this approach is currently lacking validation.