Neo-virology: The raison d’etre of viruses

Given that approximately 1031 virus particles exist on Earth and all of them are parasitic in living organisms, it is not hard to imagine how virus infection might affect the physiology of hosts and their ecosystems. However, traditional virology research tends to focus on viral pathogenicity or the individual pathogenic viruses; hence, the significance of viruses and viral-mediated processes in the global ecosystem has been poorly understood....