Scientists discover unknown virus in 'throwaway' DNA

(University of Oxford) A chance discovery has opened up a new method of finding unknown viruses.In research published in the journal Virus Evolution, scientists from Oxford University's Department of Zoology have revealed that Next-Generation Sequencing and its associated online DNA databases could be used in the field of viral discovery. They have developed algorithms that detect DNA from viruses that happen to be in fish blood or tissue samples, and could be used to identify viruses in a range of different species.
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news