VIRE: a metagenome-derived, planetary-scale virome resource with environmental context
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Date
2026-01-06
Authors
Nishijima, Suguru
Fullam, Anthony
Schmidt, Thomas S B
Kuhn, Michael
Bork, Peer
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Published Version
Abstract
Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth, yet their global diversity remains largely unexplored. Here, we present VIRE, a comprehensive resource comprising over 1.7 million high- and medium-quality viral genomes recovered from >100 000 publicly available metagenomes derived from samples that cover diverse ecosystems, including host-associated, aquatic, terrestrial, and anthropogenic environments. Using a unified and scalable pipeline, we systematically assembled viral genomes and provided detailed information on genome completeness, taxonomic classification, predicted lifestyle, and host assignment based on CRISPR spacer matches. VIRE contains >89 million predicted viral open reading frames, as well as detailed functional annotations derived from multiple databases. Importantly, VIRE is seamlessly integrated with related microbiome resources such as SPIRE (https://spire.embl.de) and Metalog (https://metalog.embl.de), enabling users to jointly explore viral genomes, metagenome-assembled genomes, and associated environmental or clinical metadata. Accessible at https://vire.embl.de, VIRE provides an open-access, scalable platform for investigating viral diversity, evolution, and ecology on a planetary scale.
Description
Keywords
VIRE , Viral genomes , Viruses
Citation
Nishijima, S, Fullam, A, Schmidt, T S B, Kuhn, M & Bork, P 2026, 'VIRE: a metagenome-derived, planetary-scale virome resource with environmental context', Nucleic Acids Research, vol. 54, no. 1, gkaf1225, pp. D902-D911. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf1225