On the 10th, it was learned from Sun Yat sen University that Professor Shi Mang's team from the School of Medicine and Li Zhaorong's team from Alibaba Cloud have applied artificial intelligence (AI) technology to virus identification and discovered a virus "dark matter" that traditional research methods have not been able to detect, exploring a new path in virology research. The relevant results were recently published in the international journal Cell. It is reported that traditional virus discovery methods include virus isolation and bioinformatics analysis of life omics, which highly rely on existing knowledge and have low recognition rates for RNA viruses, which are highly differentiated, diverse, and prone to mutation. In this study, the LucaProt artificial intelligence algorithm developed by the team is capable of deep learning of viral and non viral genome sequences and autonomously judging virus sequences in the dataset. Using this algorithm, the team discovered over 510000 viral genomes from 10487 RNA sequencing data of global biological environment samples, representing over 160000 potential virus species and 180 RNA virus super groups, significantly expanding the diversity of RNA viruses worldwide. Among them, 23 super groups cannot be identified through sequence homology methods and are known as the "dark matter" of the virus circle. The algorithm models of artificial intelligence can uncover viruses that we previously overlooked or were completely unaware of, which is particularly important in disease prevention and rapid identification of new pathogens. Especially during an outbreak, the speed and accuracy of artificial intelligence can help scientists pinpoint potential pathogens more quickly Shi Mang said. Through further analysis, the team reported the longest RNA virus genome to date, with a length of 47250 nucleotides; Discovered genome structures beyond previous understanding, demonstrating the flexibility of RNA virus genome evolution; The identification of multiple viral functional proteins, especially those related to bacteria, further indicates that there are more types of RNA bacteriophages that urgently need to be explored; It has been found that the quantity and diversity of RNA viruses are still high in extreme environments such as Antarctic sediments, deep-sea hot springs, activated sludge, and saline alkali beaches. These findings have refreshed scientists' understanding of the virus community. Faced with new viruses from distant sources, the existing virus classification system has become inadequate. In the future, this system may undergo large-scale adjustments in deeper classifications such as gates and categories Shi Mang said that their research demonstrates the depth of virus diversity, but the breadth still needs to be supplemented by more samples. The diversity of viruses far exceeds human imagination, and what we currently see is still the tip of the iceberg. Shi Mang stated that in the future, we will continue to address important issues in the field of life sciences through cross disciplinary scientific research cooperation, fully utilizing the advantages of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. (New Society)