A Virome is all the different types of viruses we host in our bodies which contribute to health, much like the bacterial microbiome.
Key points
- This virome is huge. We have 380 trillion virus particles living (or existing) in or on our body right now — 10 times more than the number of bacteria.
- These viruses lurk in our lungs and blood, live on our skin and linger inside the microbes in our guts.
- They’re not all bad, however: There are viruses that kill cancer cells and help break down tumors, others that train our immune system and help them fight pathogens, and even some that control gene expression in pregnancy.
- The vast majority of viruses inside us are bacteriophages — viruses that kill bacteria in our microbiomes.
- Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are harmless to human cells as they do not recognize them as their bacterial prey.
- They work by hunting down bacteria and attaching themselves to the surface of a bacterial cell, before injecting viral DNA material into the cell.
- The viral DNA then replicates inside the bacteria, sometimes by borrowing the DNA replication hardware of the bacteria.
