Těžko se najdou na Zemi biologické entity, které by co do kvantity a diverzity mohly konkurovat virům. Rychlá dynamika jejich vývoje umožňuje adaptaci na nové hostitele. Metody metagenomiky odhalily netušená množství virů ve všech studovaných ekosystémech i organismech. Poukázaly také, že existuje mnohem větší diverzita ve velikostech a struktuře virionů, ve velikosti a organizaci virových genomů a v sekvencích genů, než se donedávna myslelo. Řada nově objevených virů obsahuje ve své většině genetické informace, které nebyly dosud nalezeny v genomech žádných známých forem života. Analýzy metagenomických dat potvrzují, že viry představují obrovský zdroj diverzity pro všechny formy života na Zemi a ovlivnily a stále ovlivňují jejich evoluci.

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Internetové zdroje:
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, ICTV
Giant virus
The largest known viral genomes

It is hard to find biological entities on Earth that could compete with viruses in quantity and diversity. The rapid dynamics of virus evolution allows them to adapt to new hosts. Methods of metagenomics have revealed astonishing amounts of viruses in all the ecosystems and organisms studied. They also pointed out much greater diversity in virion size and structure, in the size and organization of viral genomes and in gene sequences than previously thought. Many of the newly discovered viruses contain most of the genetic information that has no homology with the gene sequences of any known life forms. Analyses of metanogenomic data suggest that viruses are an enormous source of diversity for all life forms on Earth and have influenced their evolution.