Month: August 2026

Effects of Nutrient Limitation on Antarctic Microbial Community Diversity, Composition, and Interactions: A Cryoconite Microcosm Study

Microorganisms. 2026 Aug 16;14(8):1807. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms14081807. ABSTRACT Dry, harsh, nutrient-limited environments such as the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, may be particularly susceptible to changes in nutrient availability, demonstrating strong deterministic community assembly processes shaping communities within an ecosystem largely dominated by stochastic processes. Utilizing previously characterized cryoconite hole sediments from Canada Glacier in Taylor Valley, … Read more

Atypical myxomatosis in European rabbits is caused by the recombinant myxoma virus involved in species jumping into hares

bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2026 Jul 27:2026.07.25.740729. doi: 10.64898/2026.07.25.740729. ABSTRACT Myxoma virus (MYXV), a member of the Leporipoxvirus genus (species Leporipoxvirus myxoma; family Poxviridae ), causes a highly lethal disease known as myxomatosis in European rabbits. In late 2018, a new natural MYXV isolate, MYXV-Tol (a.k.a. hare MYXV; ha-MYXV), emerged and caused myxomatosis-like disease with high mortality … Read more

Virus community views on the possible extension of virus taxonomic assignments to a below-species rank

J Gen Virol. 2026 Aug;107(8). doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.002313. ABSTRACT The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) is considering a proposal submitted in July 2025 to create an optional additional taxonomic rank below the level of species. This was designed to increase the precision of taxonomic assignment where clinical or other regulatory distinctions need to be … Read more

Skuas as sentinels of high pathogenicity avian influenza H5N1 on the Antarctic Peninsula in the 2024/2025 austral summer

Microb Genom. 2026 Aug;12(8). doi: 10.1099/mgen.0.001724. ABSTRACT Despite Antarctica’s geographic isolation, the first incursion of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 was detected in the 2023/2024 austral summer. Surveillance for HPAI H5N1 in Antarctica remains patchy due to logistical, financial and infrastructure challenges, with many suspected cases remaining unconfirmed and few viral genome sequences available … Read more

Efunaviria, Floreoviria, Pleomoviria, and Volvereviria: four realms of viruses with small DNA genomes to replace realm Monodnaviria

J Virol. 2026 Aug 12:e0101926. doi: 10.1128/jvi.01019-26. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Realm Monodnaviria was established for unification of viruses with small DNA genomes that encode homologous endonucleases initiating rolling circle replication or their inactivated derivatives. However, comprehensive analysis of the expanded virus sequence and structure databases revealed that neither replication nor structural modules within … Read more

Metagenome-assembled genomes of papillomaviruses from mallard and northern pintail cloacal swabs

Microbiol Resour Announc. 2026 Aug 5:e0072626. doi: 10.1128/mra.00726-26. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT There is little known about papillomavirus diversity in waterfowl. From cloacal swabs of one mallard and three northern pintails sampled in New Mexico (USA), we identified four papillomavirus genomes. These papillomaviruses share >92.7% genome-wide nucleotide pairwise identity with Anas platyrhynchos papillomavirus 3 … Read more