2026/04/21 by Almut Werner, Cynthia Maria Chibani, Ruth A. Schmitz · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Bacteriophages and microbial interactions #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Plant and Fungal Interactions Research
paper · doi:10.1128/msystems.01249-25
openalex publication_date 2026/04/21 · openalex created_date 2026/04/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/16
Viruses play crucial roles in microbial ecosystems, yet viromic analysis remains challenging due to the field's complexity and rapid evolution. This minireview supports non-specialists through the evolving landscape of viromics, focusing on the analysis of bacterial and archaeal DNA viruses from metagenomic data. We address major challenges, including viral diversity, methodological biases, and the overwhelming array of available tools and pipelines. While describing a typical viromic workflow, we provide users with background information for each of the steps from data acquisition, preprocessing, and quality control to viral characterization and common downstream analyses. The included references and resources will provide users with the information needed to confidently start their own virome analysis.