Human virome

[9] Studying the virome is thought to provide an understanding of microbes in general and how they affect human health and disease.

In January 2024, biologists reported the discovery of "obelisks", a new class of viroid-like elements, and "oblins", their related group of proteins, in the human microbiome.

[2][18][21] One of the first studies that used high-throughput DNA sequencing to describe the diversity of eukaryotic dsDNA viruses in normal individuals included 706 samples from 102 subjects.

[16] This study detected an average of 5.5 viral genera in each individual and these viruses included herpesviruses, papillomaviruses, polyomaviruses, adenoviruses, anelloviruses, parvoviruses, and circoviruses.

[16] Each individual had a distinct viral profile, demonstrating the high interpersonal diversity of the virome.

[16] Sequences were detected predominantly in the nose and skin, similarity to 17 papillomavirus genera(Figure 4B).

[16] Whole-genome sequencing data of blood from 8,240 individuals without any clear infectious disease revealed 94 different viruses in 42% of the study participants.

[6] When viruses cause harm by infecting the cells in the body, a symptomatic disease may develop.

[28] Virus communities differ by moisture levels and degree of protection from the external environment.

[30] This was done by comparing the distance between bacteriophage gut communities in individuals both before and after they started a controlled diet.

The human virome in healthy, asymptomatic adults. The histogram shows the number of individuals (y-axis) who were positive for a given number of different viral genera (x-axis). [ 16 ]
The human virome in healthy, asymptomatic adults. The viral genera (y-axis) detected in each subject (x-axis) are represented by black bars. The virome of each individual is viewed by looking at the black bars in a given column. [ 16 ]
The human virome in five body habitats. (A) All of the viruses detected in the five body habitats . Each virus is represented by a colored bar and labeled on the y-axis on the right side. The relative height of the bar reflects the percentage of subjects sampled at each body site in whom the virus was detected. In this panel, the bar representing roseoloviruses in the oral samples reflects the maximum bar height, because 98% of the individuals who were sampled in the mouth harbored roseoloviruses. (B) This panel shows papillomaviruses included in the category ‘Other papillomaviruses’. The largest bar height shown represents the unclassified papillomaviruses found in skin samples from 65% of subjects. [ 16 ]