Nguyen Mary, Wemheuer Bernd, Laffy Patrick W, Webster Nicole S, Thomas Torsten
Centre for Marine Science and Innovation & School of Biological & Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
PeerJ. 2021 Feb 2;9:e10715. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10715. eCollection 2021.
Viruses play an essential role in shaping the structure and function of ecological communities. Marine sponges have the capacity to filter large volumes of 'virus-laden' seawater through their bodies and host dense communities of microbial symbionts, which are likely accessible to viral infection. However, despite the potential of sponges and their symbionts to act as viral reservoirs, little is known about the sponge-associated virome. Here we address this knowledge gap by analysing metagenomic and (meta-) transcriptomic datasets from several sponge species to determine what viruses are present and elucidate their predicted and expressed functionality. Sponges were found to carry diverse, abundant and active bacteriophages as well as eukaryotic viruses belonging to the Megavirales and . These viruses contain and express auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) for photosynthesis and vitamin synthesis as well as for the production of antimicrobials and the defence against toxins. These viral AMGs can therefore contribute to the metabolic capacities of their hosts and also potentially enhance the survival of infected cells. This suggest that viruses may play a key role in regulating the abundance and activities of members of the sponge holobiont.
病毒在塑造生态群落的结构和功能方面发挥着重要作用。海洋海绵能够通过其身体过滤大量“携带病毒”的海水，并容纳密集的微生物共生体群落，而这些共生体很可能容易受到病毒感染。然而，尽管海绵及其共生体有潜力成为病毒库，但关于与海绵相关的病毒群落却知之甚少。在这里，我们通过分析来自几种海绵物种的宏基因组和（元）转录组数据集来填补这一知识空白，以确定存在哪些病毒，并阐明它们预测的和表达的功能。研究发现，海绵携带多种丰富且活跃的噬菌体以及属于巨病毒目等的真核病毒。这些病毒含有并表达用于光合作用、维生素合成以及抗菌物质生产和毒素防御的辅助代谢基因（AMGs）。因此，这些病毒AMGs可以促进其宿主的代谢能力，也有可能提高受感染细胞的存活率。这表明病毒可能在调节海绵整体生物群落成员的丰度和活性方面发挥关键作用。
