In a recent study, published in Virology Journal (July 2025), RCB researchers have uncovered around a thousand high-quality viral genomes derived from human gut metagenomic data, largely omitted from existing sequence databases. This includes eight new species of dsDNA- and nineteen new species of ssDNA phages. Four of these genomes are absent in major repositories such as RefSeq, IMG-VR or GPD (Gut Phage Database).
Entamoeba histolytica is a human parasite protozoan and causes amoebiasis, bloody diarrhea, sometimes liver abscesses, and rarely abscesses in vital organs such as the lung, brain, and spleen. It remains the 4th leading cause of infection in humans by a protozoan. E. histolytica life cycle spans between an infective ‘cyst stage’ and an active disease-causing ‘trophozoite stage’.