College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg, FL, USA.
Nat Microbiol. 2018 Jul;3(7):754-766. doi: 10.1038/s41564-018-0166-y. Epub 2018 Jun 4.
Viruses numerically dominate our oceans; however, we have only just begun to document the diversity, host range and infection dynamics of marine viruses, as well as the subsequent effects of infection on both host cell metabolism and oceanic biogeochemistry. Bacteriophages (that is, phages: viruses that infect bacteria) are highly abundant and are known to play critical roles in bacterial mortality, biogeochemical cycling and horizontal gene transfer. This Review Article summarizes current knowledge of marine viral ecology and highlights the importance of phage particles to the dissolved organic matter pool, as well as the complex interactions between phages and their bacterial hosts. We emphasize the newly recognized roles of phages as puppet masters of their bacterial hosts, where phages are capable of altering the metabolism of infected bacteria through the expression of auxiliary metabolic genes and the redirection of host gene expression patterns. Finally, we propose the 'royal family model' as a hypothesis to describe successional patterns of bacteria and phages over time in marine systems, where despite high richness and significant seasonal differences, only a small number of phages appear to continually dominate a given marine ecosystem. Although further testing is required, this model provides a framework for assessing the specificity and ecological consequences of phage-host dynamics.
病毒在数量上主宰着我们的海洋；然而，我们才刚刚开始记录海洋病毒的多样性、宿主范围和感染动态，以及感染对宿主细胞代谢和海洋生物地球化学的后续影响。噬菌体（即感染细菌的病毒）数量非常丰富，已知它们在细菌死亡率、生物地球化学循环和水平基因转移中起着关键作用。这篇综述文章总结了海洋病毒生态学的现有知识，并强调了噬菌体颗粒对溶解有机物质库的重要性，以及噬菌体与其细菌宿主之间的复杂相互作用。我们强调了噬菌体作为其细菌宿主的傀儡大师的新角色，其中噬菌体通过表达辅助代谢基因和重定向宿主基因表达模式，能够改变感染细菌的代谢。最后，我们提出了“王室模型”作为一个假设，以描述海洋系统中细菌和噬菌体随时间的演替模式，尽管丰富度高且具有显著的季节性差异，但只有少数噬菌体似乎持续主导给定的海洋生态系统。尽管需要进一步的测试，但该模型为评估噬菌体-宿主动态的特异性和生态后果提供了一个框架。
