The Scientist spoke with Ohio State University microbiologist Matthew Sullivan about a recent expedition that identified thousands of RNA viruses from water samples and cataloged them into novel phylogenic groups.

Research in mice and flies suggests that bacteriophages, including those found in dairy foods, may have an influence on an animals’ ability to learn and remember information.

Bacteria-infecting viruses affect the composition and behavior of microbes in the mammalian gut—and perhaps influence human biology.

Phages interact with bacteria and eukaryotic cells in ways that researchers suspect influence mammalian health.

Most of the viruses present in people’s guts are bacteriophages, but how they interact with resident bacteria is still an open question.

In one of the first looks at the urinary virome, researchers find hundreds of viruses, most of which have never been sequenced before. 

Advances in microbiome research are increasingly used in anti-vaccination arguments, yet the science actually undermines the premise of the argument.

Researchers find evidence of antibiotic resistance genes in the DNA of viruses that infect bacteria.

Some of our resident viruses may be beneficial.

Diverse viruses can be found commingling with human and bacteria cells in and on people’s bodies. Scientists are just beginning to understand how these viruses help and when they can turn pathogenic.

Scientists devise an antibody-based test that can generate a person’s complete “viral history” with just one drop of blood.

New understanding of noncoding RNAs may solve a long-standing puzzle about how viruses orchestrate lifelong infections.
 

A murine norovirus appears to recover some of the functions of commensal bacteria in the guts of germ-free or antibiotic-treated mice.

Scientists identify a bacteriophage that is highly abundant in the gut bacteria of people around the world.

Monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus have a higher diversity of gut viruses, pointing to a possible role of the virome in SIV pathogenesis.