Culley Alexander I, Lang Andrew S, Suttle Curtis A
Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, 3529-6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Science. 2006 Jun 23;312(5781):1795-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1127404.
RNA viruses infect marine organisms from bacteria to whales, but RNA virus communities in the sea remain essentially unknown. Reverse-transcribed whole-genome shotgun sequencing was used to characterize the diversity of uncultivated marine RNA virus assemblages. A diverse assemblage of RNA viruses, including a broad group of marine picorna-like viruses, and distant relatives of viruses infecting arthropods and higher plants were found. Communities were dominated by distinct genotypes with small genome sizes, and we completely assembled the genomes of several hitherto undiscovered viruses. Our results show that the oceans are a reservoir of previously unknown RNA viruses.
RNA病毒可感染从细菌到鲸鱼等各种海洋生物，但海洋中的RNA病毒群落基本上仍不为人知。利用逆转录全基因组鸟枪法测序来描述未培养的海洋RNA病毒组合的多样性。发现了多种多样的RNA病毒组合，包括一大类海洋微小核糖核酸病毒样病毒，以及感染节肢动物和高等植物的病毒的远亲。群落以基因组较小的独特基因型为主，我们还完全组装了几种迄今未发现病毒的基因组。我们的结果表明，海洋是此前未知RNA病毒的一个储存库。
