Omission of non-poly(A) viral transcripts from the tissue level atlas of the healthy human virome

A recent paper in BMC Biology entitled “A tissue level atlas of the healthy human virome” by Kumata et al. describes a meta-transcriptomic analysis of RNA-sequencing datasets from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Project. Using a workflow that maps the GTEx sequences to the human genome, then screens unmapped sequences to detect viral transcripts, the authors present a quantitative analysis of the presence of different viruses in the nondiseased tissues of over 500 individuals and assess the impact of these viruses on host gene expression. Here we draw attention to an issue not acknowledged in this study. Namely, by relying solely on GTEx datasets, which are enriched for transcripts with poly(A) tails, the analysis will have missed non-poly(A) viral transcripts, rendering this tissue level atlas of the virome incomplete
Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO)
European Union (EU) RYC-2016-21199 ENDORE SAF2017-87526-R
FEDER/Junta de Andalucía -Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento: MENDO B-CTS-500-UGR18
University of Granada Plan Propio de Investigacion 2016 -Excellence actions: Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES) SOMM17/6107/UGR
Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities PRE2018-0854409 FPU19/01638