An artificial intelligence tool has helped scientists discover unknown virus species at an unprecedented speed from data previously uploaded to databases, according to a joint study by researchers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Australia.
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The team said the discovery of nearly 162,000 new species of RNA virus in different environments – including in the atmosphere, hot springs and hydrothermal vents – highlighted their diversity and resilience in harsh conditions, while potentially offering clues to how viruses and other elemental life forms came to be.
By analysing previously unrecognised genetic sequence data in public databases, the machine learning tool identified viruses based on their sequences and hidden protein structure information that RNA viruses use for replication, identifying whether a sequence represents an RNA virus species in one second or less.
The tool uses an algorithm developed by the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence team and was developed in partnership with a team of virologists. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.
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Nobel Medicine Prize awarded to US duo for ‘fundamentally important’ discovery of microRNA
Nobel Medicine Prize awarded to US duo for ‘fundamentally important’ discovery of microRNA
“We developed a data-driven deep learning model that outperforms conventional methods in accuracy, efficiency and, most importantly, the breadth of virus diversity detected,” the team wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell on Wednesday.
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They said the study was the largest virus species discovery ever published in terms of the number of species reported in a paper.