Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
Department of Biology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807, USA.
Nat Commun. 2017 Jun 28;8:16054. doi: 10.1038/ncomms16054.
Establishing virus-host relationships has historically relied on culture-dependent approaches. Here we report on the use of marine metatranscriptomics to probe virus-host relationships. Statistical co-occurrence analyses of dsDNA, ssRNA and dsRNA viral markers of polyadenylation-selected RNA sequences from microbial communities dominated by Aureococcus anophagefferens (Quantuck Bay, NY), and diatoms (Narragansett Bay, RI) show active infections by diverse giant viruses (NCLDVs) associated with algal and nonalgal hosts. Ongoing infections of A. anophagefferens by a known Mimiviridae (AaV) occur during bloom peak and decline. Bloom decline is also accompanied by increased activity of viruses other than AaV, including (+) ssRNA viruses. In Narragansett Bay, increased temporal resolution reveals active NCLDVs with both 'boom-and-bust' and 'steady-state infection'-like ecologies that include known as well as novel virus-host interactions. Our approach offers a method for screening active viral infections and develops links between viruses and their potential hosts in situ. Our observations further demonstrate that previously unknown virus-host relationships in marine systems are abundant.
建立病毒-宿主关系在历史上一直依赖于依赖培养的方法。在这里，我们报告了使用海洋宏转录组学来探测病毒-宿主关系。对来自以 Aureococcus anophagefferens（纽约 Quantuck 湾）和硅藻（罗德岛 Narragansett 湾）为主的微生物群落中多聚腺苷酸化选择的 RNA 序列的 dsDNA、ssRNA 和 dsRNA 病毒标志物的统计共现分析表明，与藻类和非藻类宿主相关的多种巨型病毒（NCLDVs）存在活跃感染。在 A. anophagefferens 的持续感染期间发生了已知的 Mimiviridae（AaV）的爆发高峰和下降。藻类爆发的减少还伴随着除了 AaV 之外的其他病毒的活性增加，包括（+）ssRNA 病毒。在 Narragansett 湾，更高的时间分辨率揭示了具有“繁荣-萧条”和“稳态感染”样生态的活跃 NCLDVs，其中包括已知和新的病毒-宿主相互作用。我们的方法提供了一种筛选活跃病毒感染的方法，并在原位建立了病毒与其潜在宿主之间的联系。我们的观察结果进一步表明，海洋系统中以前未知的病毒-宿主关系非常丰富。
