10:01 a.m., May 21, 2009----An international group of 75 scientists gathered May 14-16 at the University of Delaware for a meeting focused on the ecology of viruses in aquatic and terrestrial environments, from the deepest part of the ocean to the soils of Delaware.

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The scientists came from across the U.S., Canada, Japan, Ukraine, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Chile, according to K. Eric Wommack, UD associate professor of plant and soil sciences, biological sciences and marine and earth studies who is affiliated with the Delaware Biotechnology Institute and who organized the meeting.

Wommack said the meeting marked the 20th anniversary of the discovery of extraordinary viral abundance in the ocean in 1989. “We now know that all of the viruses on earth, lined end to end would stretch to the nearest 60 galaxies -- 10,000 light years,” he said.

Several talks during the meeting focused on the astonishing diversity of viral genes. “Using the tools of high-throughput sequencing to explore the genomes (DNA and RNA) of environmental viruses we have discovered that most viral genes are unknown and truly novel,” Wommack said. “Because viruses are so abundant in soils and aquatic environments it is possible that we have little to no understanding of the most abundant genes on Earth.”

The event's keynote speaker, Graham Hatfull, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow, spoke of his exploration of the diversity of viruses infecting a bacteria related to the one that causes TB.

Hatfull has brought genomic science to high school and undergraduate students and through an HHMI-funded program, well over 50 new viral genomes have been sequenced and annotated by these aspiring scientists.

The group held an open discussion on the best technologies to explore the genetic diversity of viruses in the environment.

The meeting was supported by the Scientific Committee for Ocean Research (SCOR), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Marine Microbial Initiative, the UD Center for Critical Zone Research and the Delaware EPSCoR program. Through these funds the SCOR viral ecology working group was able to support the attendance of dozens of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.