Shining light on the social lives of viruses

Scientists know viruses are contagious and can spread quickly, but how do they interact with each other? To gain an understanding into how viruses spread, and ultimately evolve, Samuel Díaz-Muñoz, assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Davis, explores the hustle and bustle of viruses’ social lives in a new paper published in Cell Host & Microbe. Viruses rely on hosts to survive and reproduce, infecting all forms of life from plants and animals to bacteria and other single-celled microorganisms. Found in nearly all ecosystems, millions of different types of viruses are believed to exist. Competition is fierce within their tiny worlds. Since multiple viruses often co-infect the same host, they have developed strategies to interact with one another, from exploitation to cooperation. Some viruses even “cheat” by piggybacking on the reproduction of other viruses. Díaz-Muñoz is calling for scientists to take a...