Unprecedented diversity and co-evolutionary dynamics within the ant virosphere.

Viral community characterization in Neotropical ant species across habitat gradients. This project attempts to investigate the changes in composition and diversity throughout the viral communities of ant species across both pristine and fragmented habitats. We utilized viral metagenomics to assess the viral communities of ants. This exploratory study has increased by 10-fold the number of viruses discovered within ant hosts and potentially elucidate virus-host co-evolutionary patterns.