PEONY: a global reference database of DNA viral (vOTU) sequences from viral size-fractionated metagenomes (viromes)

The database was updated in 2023 (<a href="doi.org/10.25338/B8C934">PIGEON2.0</a>) to include additional vOTUs totaling 515,763. Due to the limited numbers of sequenced viromes at the time, particularly from soil, PIGEON1.0 and 2.0 included vOTUs recovered from both viromes and total DNA metagenomes. The total number of PIGEON vOTUs increased to 1,351,223 (PIGEON3.0).

After removing 263,711 vOTUs from total metagenomes, 1,072,861 vOTUs remain in PEONY.<br> PEONY vOTUs encompass terrestrial, aquatic, and mammalian digestive ecosystems across five continents. Notably, 57% of vOTUs in PEONY originate from California, USA, where soils from various ecosystems (agricultural fields, grasslands, forests, wetlands, chaparral, and plant rhizospheres) have been routinely sampled by the Emerson Lab at the University of California, Davis and collaborators in recent years.

This database provides a useful tool for studies of dsDNA viral (presumably, mostly bacteriophage) diversity and environmental distributions. Researchers can use PEONY to compare viruses from individual studies to global distribution patterns. For example, mapping vOTUs from fire-affected soils to the PIGEON2.0 database allowed <a href="watermark02.silverchair.com/ycaf073.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAmMwggJfBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggJQMIICTAIBADCCAkUGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMAmHRIDIoF7nQdNcZAgEQgIICFrRLvgsuyp0e4Kuj3fVcQr9qPyi1a2gc5k17MlJV8axyW6ezq0YSxImubQJ8ls5JBqXEQ1bMf6qIP6KxsNT2BgxWLcM21t7Iy7m3RkYYvhXbhL_P-d4GJDEA-As4u25QsydbgP7KhOaciDNfd8tiKrXzj1S9ot_GJIIbo9w3DnBV9XF-x5ElbVKaZGi58ipMOUS90xp0D8R-a067KG5_PAmuas_VcbzdPaXXd2F8AWGPSU9w5OZ0Gryqe57c4LdBwqKjQbReOKVoiivYS6DVs60g7DfvdO9PVqKPNNbm2c-0cTDmqp6p9MdnRUvS3dk5dLtR3lhdmDdEDtib6jm0p_LZ-pIK-VNrEdns6C0-oeFSFmtVOONK76gVrHIrGZuj4YkJPspTMYCgpiS35e7vpMlQ-HEJPy-8d8y5TiU4vXWYfTC0qkgwyWe03zQcPZuQf-qstUxpVnRSoOdSQoTucbDxTDGgemOa9IayrxKPJn8Q-Vv950iGKDDQm2RjOaDx8CtOIXC2-YXASDi-VaND6E3AifpSEpMeFgdJqnVAszlFnPKzOhnxiWQKpUiZcV5ROgWvYY2-kc5Ou1qrenesovMZxTS9TYfOdh3fCdz-euv9VPurhA-2A2Xdo_VcLl_d6sOP7HR8bcQ2Tdl9jMRaCirA7LhWNQfTeEvZQGTDv3OlUCx3CGgHcCkmI5YiMfexxF5N_ZZjGg">Geonczy et al.</a> to identify potentially fire-adapted vOTUs shared amongst other post-wildfire studies.

As more viromics data becomes available we expect to update PEONY biennially.<br> The databases (both PIGEON3.0 and PEONY) and associated code for database visualization in R, scripts for curation, and additional methods information and associated metadata are available here.</p>