The Virus-X—Viral Metagenomics for Innovation Value—project was a scientific expedition to explore and exploit uncharted territory of genetic diversity in extreme natural environments such as geothermal hot springs and deep-sea ocean ecosystems. Specifically, the project was set to analyse and exploit viral metagenomes with the ultimate goal of developing new gene products with high innovation value for applications in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical, and the life science sectors. Viral gene pool analysis is also essential to obtain fundamental insight into ecosystem dynamics and to investigate how viruses influence the evolution of microbes and multicellular organisms. The Virus-X Consortium, established in 2016, included experts from eight European countries. The unique approach based on high throughput bioinformatics technologies combined with structural and functional studies resulted in the development of a biodiscovery pipeline of significant capacity and scale. The activities within the Virus-X consortium cover the entire range from bioprospecting and methods development in bioinformatics to protein production and characterisation, with the final goal of translating our results into new products for the bioeconomy. The significant impact the consortium made in all of these areas was possible due to the successful cooperation between expert teams that worked together to solve a complex scientific problem using state-of-the-art technologies as well as developing novel tools to explore the virosphere, widely considered as the last great frontier of life.

中文翻译：

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走向极端——探索生命暗物质的宏基因组学之旅

Virus-X——具有创新价值的病毒宏基因组学——项目是一项科学考察，旨在探索和利用极端自然环境（如地热温泉和深海海洋生态系统）中遗传多样性的未知领域。具体而言，该项目旨在分析和利用病毒宏基因组，最终目标是开发具有高创新价值的新基因产品，用于生物技术、制药、医疗和生命科学领域。病毒基因库分析对于获得对生态系统动态的基本了解以及研究病毒如何影响微生物和多细胞生物的进化也是必不可少的。Virus-X 联盟成立于 2016 年，包括来自八个欧洲国家的专家。基于高通量生物信息学技术与结构和功能研究相结合的独特方法导致了具有显着容量和规模的生物发现管道的发展。Virus-X 联盟内的活动涵盖了从生物信息学的生物勘探和方法开发到蛋白质生产和表征的整个范围，最终目标是将我们的结果转化为生物经济的新产品。由于专家团队之间的成功合作，使用最先进的技术解决了一个复杂的科学问题，并开发了探索病毒圈的新工具，因此该联盟在所有这些领域产生了重大影响，被广泛认为是生命最后的伟大前沿。