Seek and You Shall Find — Unknown Pathogens?

Over the past decade, there has been a renaissance of virus discovery fueled by the advent of new technologies such as next-generation sequencing; these technologies have greatly accelerated the pace of discovery of new viruses in a wide range of hosts. 1-4 This bonanza of discovery has presented both opportunities and challenges for virologists, epidemiologists, taxonomists, and evolutionary biologists. The ever-decreasing cost of obtaining complete genome sequences has allowed the refinement of viruses’ taxonomic assignments, analysis of their phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships, and (importantly) evaluation of the potential risks they may pose to human and animal populations. 5,6 Viruses belonging to the . . .