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Viruses are ubiquitous molecular parasites whose productive and rapid infectious cycles make them ideal tools in molecular and evolutionary biology. While viruses have important roles in molecular biology, exploring environmental viral diversity offers an open-ended opportunity for undergraduate research. Here, I present a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) centered in the discovery of new cruciviruses —novel chimeric DNA viruses that encode an RNA virus protein, representing an extreme case of horizontal gene exchange. During this course, Biology undergraduate students become active researchers for a semester, by hunting for cruciviruses in familiar local environments (University campus, parks or backyard). Students work in groups to apply a series of molecular techniques (e.g. DNA extraction, PCR, cloning, sequencing) tailored at the discovery of viruses, and use computational tools for the characterization of their new viral genomes.
