Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on the planet and have important roles in microbial community composition,host evolution and nutrient biogeochemical cycles.Firstly,this article summarizes the research history and development status of environmental viruses and reveals the development process of virus ecology,with focuses on comparative approaches to study soil viral ecology including phenotype,gene diversity,metagenomic,bioinformatics analysis,etc.Then based on these approaches,soil viruses diversity is expounded and the ecological function of soil viruses is further explored.Finally,the application and development prospects of environmental phages (phage therapy) are reviewed and prospected.

soil virus  /  virome  /  community composition  /  biogeochemical cycling of soil elements  /  auxiliary metabolic genes  /  phage therapy