Institute of Biotechnology and Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Viikinkaari 5, Helsinki, Finland.
Environ Microbiol. 2012 Feb;14(2):426-40. doi: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02603.x. Epub 2011 Oct 17.
Hypersaline environments are dominated by archaea and bacteria and are almost entirely devoid of eukaryotic organisms. In addition, hypersaline environments contain considerable numbers of viruses. Currently, there is only a limited amount of information about these haloviruses. The ones described in detail mostly resemble head-tail bacteriophages, whereas observations based on direct microscopy of the hypersaline environmental samples highlight the abundance of non-tailed virus-like particles. Here we studied nine spatially distant hypersaline environments for the isolation of new halophilic archaea (61 isolates), halophilic bacteria (24 isolates) and their viruses (49 isolates) using a culture-dependent approach. The obtained virus isolates approximately double the number of currently described archaeal viruses. The new isolates could be divided into three tailed and two non-tailed virus morphotypes, suggesting that both types of viruses are widely distributed and characteristic for haloarchaeal viruses. We determined the sensitivity of the hosts against all isolated viruses. It appeared that the host ranges of numerous viruses extend to hosts in distant locations, supporting the idea that there is a global exchange of microbes and their viruses. It suggests that hypersaline environments worldwide function like a single habitat.
高盐环境主要由古菌和细菌主导，几乎完全没有真核生物。此外，高盐环境中还含有大量的病毒。目前，关于这些海洋病毒的信息非常有限。描述的海洋病毒大多数类似于头部-尾部噬菌体，而基于对高盐环境样本的直接显微镜观察，突出了非尾部病毒样颗粒的丰富度。在这里，我们使用依赖培养的方法研究了九个空间上遥远的高盐环境，以分离新的嗜盐古菌（61 株）、嗜盐细菌（24 株）及其病毒（49 株）。获得的病毒分离物使目前描述的古菌病毒数量增加了约一倍。新的分离物可以分为三种有尾和两种无尾病毒形态，这表明这两种类型的病毒广泛分布，是海洋古菌病毒的特征。我们测定了宿主对所有分离病毒的敏感性。结果表明，许多病毒的宿主范围扩展到了遥远的宿主，这支持了微生物及其病毒在全球范围内交换的观点。这表明，世界各地的高盐环境就像一个单一的栖息地一样运作。
