title: Analysis of the virus population present in equine faeces indicates the presence of hundreds of uncharacterized virus genomes.
abstract: Virus DNA was isolated from horse faeces and cloned in a sequence-independent fashion. 268 clones were sequenced and 178140 nucleotides of sequence obtained. Statistical analysis suggests the library contains 17560 distinct clones derived from up to 233 different virus genomes. TBLASTX analysis showed that 32% of the clones had significant identity to GenBank entries. Of these 63% were viral; 20% bacterial; 7% archaeal; 6% eukarya; and 5% were related to mobile genetic elements. Fifty-two percent of the virus identities were with Siphoviridae; 26% unclassified phages; 17% Myoviridae; 4% Podoviridae; and one clone (2%) was a vertebrate Orthopoxvirus. Genes coding for predicted virus structural proteins, proteases, glycosidases and nucleic acid-binding proteins were common.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK.
authors.forename: Alan James
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Cann
authors.forename: Sarah Elizabeth
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Fandrich
authors.forename: Shaun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heaphy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D015723:Gene Library; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006736:Horses / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral
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