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Scientists identify more than 140,000 virus species in the human gut
Viruses are the most numerous biological entities on the planet. Now researchers have identified over 140,000 viral species living in the human gut, more than half of which have never been seen before.
www.sciencedaily.com
Viruses are the most numerous biological entities on the planet. Now researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have identified over 140,000 viral species living in the human gut, more than half of which have never been seen before.
The paper, published today (18 February 2021) in Cell, contains an analysis of over 28,000 gut microbiome samples collected in different parts of the world. The number and diversity of the viruses the researchers found was surprisingly high, and the data opens up new research avenues for understanding how viruses living in the gut affect human health.
The human gut is an incredibly biodiverse environment. In addition to bacteria, hundreds of thousands of viruses called bacteriophages, which can infect bacteria, also live there.
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The biology of the gastrointestinal system is very interesting. The bacteria & viruses in our guts (see article) are their own ecosystems involving thousands of different species, with the viruses happily infecting the bacteria.
One interesting note on evolution of this system: some bacteria produce ethanol, which can make you act differently. That's why we have a vital ethanol detoxification enzyme in our livers: alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH).
