Aguirre de Cárcer Daniel, López-Bueno Alberto, Pearce David A, Alcamí Antonio
Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 28049, Spain.
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK. ; Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK. ; University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen N-9171, Norway.
Sci Adv. 2015 Jun 19;1(5):e1400127. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1400127. eCollection 2015 Jun.
Viruses constitute the most abundant biological entities and a large reservoir of genetic diversity on Earth. Despite the recent surge in their study, our knowledge on their actual biodiversity and distribution remains sparse. We report the first metagenomic analysis of Arctic freshwater viral DNA communities and a comparative analysis with other freshwater environments. Arctic viromes are dominated by unknown and single-stranded DNA viruses with no close relatives in the database. These unique viral DNA communities mostly relate to each other and present some minor genetic overlap with other environments studied, including an Arctic Ocean virome. Despite common environmental conditions in polar ecosystems, the Arctic and Antarctic DNA viromes differ at the fine-grain genetic level while sharing a similar taxonomic composition. The study uncovers some viral lineages with a bipolar distribution, suggesting a global dispersal capacity for viruses, and seemingly indicates that viruses do not follow the latitudinal diversity gradient known for macroorganisms. Our study sheds light into the global biogeography and connectivity of viral communities.
病毒是地球上数量最为丰富的生物实体，也是遗传多样性的一个巨大宝库。尽管近年来对病毒的研究激增，但我们对其实际生物多样性和分布的了解仍然匮乏。我们报告了对北极淡水病毒DNA群落的首次宏基因组分析以及与其他淡水环境的比较分析。北极病毒群落主要由数据库中没有近亲的未知单链DNA病毒主导。这些独特的病毒DNA群落大多彼此相关，并且与包括北冰洋病毒群落在内的其他研究环境存在一些微小的遗传重叠。尽管极地生态系统有共同的环境条件，但北极和南极的DNA病毒群落在细粒度遗传水平上存在差异，同时具有相似的分类组成。该研究发现了一些具有两极分布的病毒谱系，表明病毒具有全球传播能力，而且似乎表明病毒并不遵循大型生物已知的纬度多样性梯度。我们的研究揭示了病毒群落的全球生物地理学和连通性。
