A five-fold expansion of the global RNA virome reveals multiple new clades of RNA bacteriophages

This deposit is intended to contain the various data generated as part of the RNA Virus in MetaTranscriptomes project ("RVMT"). This initial version is released ahead of time, near the time of submission, in hopes of providing a long lasting resource for the general scientific community. Note well - The authors listed in this initial version release are a partial list only. The RNA Virus in MetaTranscriptomes consortium is a project with over 90 researches from various institutions. For the full list of authors and related information, please see the spreadsheet tittle "Table S9 - Consortium coauthorship" available in this collection in the folder   names "Tables".
High-throughput RNA sequencing offers unprecedented opportunities to explore the Earth RNA virome. Mining 5,150 diverse metatranscriptomes uncovered >2.5 million RNA viral contigs. Via analysis of the 330k novel RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRP), this expansion corresponds to a five-fold increase of RNA virus diversity. Extended RdRP phylogeny supports monophyly of the five established phyla, reveals two putative new bacteriophage phyla and numerous putative novel classes and orders. The dramatically expanded  Lenarviricota phylum, consisting of bacterial and related eukaryotic viruses, now accounts for a third of the RNA virome diversity. Identification of CRISPR spacer matches and bacteriolytic proteins suggests that subsets of picobirnaviruses and partitiviruses, previously associated with eukaryotes, infect prokaryotic hosts. Gene content analysis revealed multiple domains previously not found in RNA viruses and implicated in virus-host interactions. This vast collection of new RNA virus genomes provides insights into RNA virus evolution and should become a major resource for RNA virology.