Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics, Department of Biotechnology, University of the Western Cape, 7535 Bellville, South Africa.
Viruses. 2017 Nov 18;9(11):348. doi: 10.3390/v9110348.
The current view of virus diversity in terrestrial hot springs is limited to a few sampling sites. To expand our current understanding of hot spring viral community diversity, this study aimed to investigate the first African hot spring (Brandvlei hot spring; 60 °C, pH 5.7) by means of electron microscopy and sequencing of the virus fraction. Microscopy analysis revealed a mixture of regular- and 'jumbo'-sized tailed morphotypes (), lemon-shaped virions (like; salterprovirus-like) and pleiomorphic virus-like particles. Metavirome analysis corroborated the presence of His1-like viruses and has expanded the current clade of salterproviruses using a polymerase B gene phylogeny. The most represented viral contig was to a cyanophage genome fragment, which may underline basic ecosystem functioning provided by these viruses. Furthermore, a putative -related phage was assembled with high coverage, a previously undocumented phage-host association. This study demonstrated that a moderately thermophilic spring environment contained a highly novel pool of viruses and should encourage future characterization of a wider temperature range of hot springs throughout the world.
目前对陆地温泉病毒多样性的认识仅限于少数几个采样点。为了扩大我们对温泉病毒群落多样性的现有认识，本研究旨在通过电子显微镜和病毒部分测序来调查第一个非洲温泉（Brandvlei 温泉；60°C，pH5.7）。显微镜分析显示出规则和“超大”长尾形态（）、柠檬形病毒（如；salterprovirus-like）和多形病毒样颗粒的混合物。宏病毒组分析证实了 His1 样病毒的存在，并使用聚合酶 B 基因系统发育扩展了当前的 salterproviruses 进化枝。代表性最强的病毒连续体是一个蓝藻噬菌体基因组片段，这可能强调了这些病毒提供的基本生态系统功能。此外，一个高覆盖率的假定 - 相关噬菌体被组装，这是以前未记录的噬菌体-宿主关联。本研究表明，中等嗜热温泉环境中含有高度新颖的病毒池，这应该鼓励未来对世界各地更广泛温度范围的温泉进行特征描述。
