Holy Crap.

If confirmed, we'll have to figure out how to categorize 180,000 newly discovered viruses.

@RNA has called this the "Platinum Age of Virus Discovery"!

"Identification of #RNA viruses is currently limited to those with sequence similarity to a known #virus, such that... the 'dark matter' of the virosphere remains challenging to detect.

We developed a deep learning algorithm [which] integrates both sequence and structural information..."

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.18.537342v1
#virology @virology

Artificial intelligence redefines RNA virus discovery

RNA viruses are diverse components of global ecosystems. The metagenomic identification of RNA viruses is currently limited to those with sequence similarity to known viruses, such that highly divergent viruses that comprise the “dark matter” of the …

^bioRxiv