Ocean viruses: rigorously evaluating the metagenomic sample-to-sequence pipeline.
As new environments are studied, viruses consistently emerge as important and prominent players in natural and man-made ecosystems. However, much of what we know is built both upon the foundation of the culturable minority and using methods that are often insufficiently ground-truthed. Here, we review the modern culture-independent viral metagenomic sample-to-sequence pipeline and how next-generation sequencing techniques are drastically altering our ability to systematically and rigorously evaluate them. Together, a series of studies quantitatively evaluate existing and new methods that allow-even for ultra-low DNA samples-the generation of replicable, near-quantitative datasets that maximize inter-comparability and biological inference.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Melissa B
MB
Duhaime
Matthew B
MB
Sullivan
D058448:Biota; D054892:Metagenome; D056186:Metagenomics / Q000379:methods*; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D012623:Seawater / Q000821:virology*; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*