For pet’s sake: Discovering a naturally occurring zebrafish virus

by Mollie Virgo, Brian Thomas Ho, Serge Mostowy

Zebrafish are often used to model host-pathogen interactions, but few models of natural virus infection have been established. A new study in PLOS Biology shows that metatranscriptomics and cohousing experiments can uncover a natural pathogenic virus of zebrafish for laboratory study. Zebrafish are often used to model host-pathogen interactions, but few models of natural virus infection have been established. This Primer explores a new study in PLOS Biology that presents a strategy to uncover viruses that are natural pathogens of laboratory zebrafish using meta-transcriptomics and co-housing experiments.