Researchers of the KFU Omics Lab have succeeded in deciphering a Phi29-family virus genome. Junior researcher Raihan Shah Mahmud of Kazan Federal University says, “There is an immense number of viruses in nature, hundreds of times more than bacteria. Simply put, viruses are the most abundant and the least studied life form on Earth. There are viruses which are not dangerous to humans but can kill pathogenic bacteria, such as bacteriophages of the cholera germ or diphtheria. It is known that bacteriophages are very good at fighting pathogens if they have appropriate enzymes or biomolecules. Only sequencing of such non-pathogenic viruses can help us identify new biomolecules that may be of use against infectious bacteria. The importance of such work grows, because of increasing antibiotic resistance.”