An Ecological Framework of the Human Virome Provides Classification of Current Knowledge and Identifies Areas of Forthcoming Discovery

Parker, Michael T.

Botanists and entomologists were among the first to notice the intricacy of virus-host interactions, which challenged the purely parasitic dogma of virus-host interaction (reviewed in [17] [18] [19] [20] ). For example, parasitoid wasps harboring polydnavirus genomes utilize virally packaged host genes to prevent rejection of wasp eggs introduced into the parasitized caterpillar [21] . In a more benign example, the white clover suppresses nodulation in conditions of sufficient nitrogen in a manner dependent on viral coat proteins of a persistently infecting cryptic virus [22] . While the breadth of knowledge of interactions types is surely incomplete, their presence in other organisms al-ludes to the possibility of the existence of similar interactions between humans and viruses.