Fritz Matthieu auteur aut IRD Reggiardo Berenice auteur aut IRD Filloux D. auteur aut IRD Claude L. auteur aut IRD Fernandez E. auteur aut IRD Mahé F. auteur aut IRD Kraberger S. auteur aut IRD Custer J. M. auteur aut IRD Becquart Pierre auteur aut IRD Mebaley T. N. auteur aut IRD Kombila L. B. auteur aut IRD Lenguiya L. H. auteur aut IRD Boundenga L. auteur aut IRD Mombo I. M. auteur aut IRD Maganga G. D. auteur aut IRD Niama F. R. auteur aut IRD Koumba J. S. auteur aut IRD Ogliastro M. auteur aut IRD Yvon M. auteur aut IRD Martin D. P. auteur aut IRD Blanc S. auteur aut IRD Varsani A. auteur aut IRD Leroy Eric auteur aut IRD Roumagnac P. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access In this study, we used a predator-enabled metagenomics strategy to sample the virome of a remote and difficult-to-access densely forested African tropical region. Specifically, we focused our study on the use of army ants of the genus Dorylus that are obligate collective foragers and group predators that attack and overwhelm a broad array of animal prey. Using 209 army ant samples collected from 29 colonies and the virion-associated nucleic acid-based metagenomics approach, we showed that a broad diversity of bacterial, plant, invertebrate and vertebrate viral sequences were accumulated by army ants: including sequences from 157 different viral genera in 56 viral families. This suggests that using predators and scavengers such as army ants to sample broad swathes of tropical forest viromes can shed light on the composition and the structure of viral populations of these complex and inaccessible ecosystems. specialized 082 052 080 3 e24 [21 ] 2023 2804-3871 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010092089 10.24072/pcjournal.249 2804-3871 [F B010092089] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010092089 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/2024-12/010092089.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2024-12-04 2026-06-12 fdi:010092089 fre