Abstract

Metagenomic Approach in Detection of Pathogenic Viruses

Nipuni TKR and Dassanayake RS

Viral pathogens are more important microorganisms with respect to both medicinal and environmental aspects as it causes numerous diseases in humans, most of animals and plants. Therefore, wideranging studies on viral pathogens are conducted to identify viral species and to find diagnostic methods for viral diseases. Due to the shortcomings of traditional methods used to detect viral pathogens including cultured cell monolayers, antibody neutralization tests and molecular methods such as PCR; a fast, cheap and emerging technology termed as ‘metagenomic identification’ has been introduced.