Eissler Yoanna, Castillo-Reyes Alonso, Dorador Cristina, Cornejo-D'Ottone Marcela, Celis-Plá Paula S M, Aguilar Polette, Molina Verónica
Instituto de Química y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile.
Escuela de Biología Marina, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y de Recursos Naturales, Universidad de Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Chile.
Front Microbiol. 2022 Aug 18;13:938066. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.938066. eCollection 2022.
The virus-to-prokaryote ratio (VPR) has been used in many ecosystems to study the relationship between viruses and their hosts. While high VPR values indicate a high rate of prokaryotes' cell lysis, low values are interpreted as a decrease in or absence of viral activity. Salar de Huasco is a high-altitude wetland characterized by a rich microbial diversity associated with aquatic sites like springs, ponds, streams and a lagoon with variable physicochemical conditions. Samples from two ponds, Poza Rosada (PR) and Poza Verde (PV), were analyzed by epifluorescence microscopy to determine variability of viral and prokaryotic abundance and to calculate the VPR in a dry season. In addition, to put Salar de Huasco results into perspective, a compilation of research articles on viral and prokaryotic abundance, VPR, and metadata from various Southern hemisphere ecosystems was revised. The ecosystems were grouped into six categories: high-altitude wetlands, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Southern Oceans and Antarctic lakes. Salar de Huasco ponds recorded similar VPR values (an average of 7.4 and 1.7 at PR and PV, respectively), ranging from 3.22 to 15.99 in PR. The VPR variability was associated with VA and chlorophyll , when considering all data available for this ecosystem. In general, high-altitude wetlands recorded the highest VPR average (53.22 ± 95.09), followed by the Oceans, Southern (21.91 ± 25.72), Atlantic (19.57 ± 15.77) and Indian (13.43 ± 16.12), then Antarctic lakes (11.37 ± 15.82) and the Pacific Ocean (6.34 ± 3.79). Physicochemical variables, i.e., temperature, conductivity, nutrients (nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate) and chlorophyll as a biological variable, were found to drive the VPR in the ecosystems analyzed. Thus, the viral activity in the Wetland followed similar trends of previous reports based on larger sets of metadata analyses. In total, this study highlights the importance of including viruses as a biological variable to study microbial temporal dynamics in wetlands considering their crucial role in the carbon budgets of these understudied ecosystems in the southern hemisphere.
病毒与原核生物的比例（VPR）已在许多生态系统中用于研究病毒与其宿主之间的关系。高VPR值表明原核生物细胞裂解率高，而低VPR值则被解释为病毒活性降低或不存在。瓦斯科盐沼是一个高海拔湿地，其特点是微生物多样性丰富，与泉水、池塘、溪流和一个理化条件多变的泻湖等水生地点相关。通过落射荧光显微镜对来自两个池塘——波扎罗萨达（PR）和波扎维德（PV）——的样本进行分析，以确定病毒和原核生物丰度的变异性，并计算旱季的VPR。此外，为了正确看待瓦斯科盐沼的研究结果，对来自南半球不同生态系统的关于病毒和原核生物丰度、VPR及元数据的研究文章汇编进行了修订。这些生态系统被分为六类：高海拔湿地、太平洋、大西洋、印度洋、南大洋和南极湖泊。瓦斯科盐沼的池塘记录到相似的VPR值（PR和PV处的平均值分别为7.4和1.7），PR处的VPR值范围为3.22至15.99。考虑到该生态系统的所有可用数据，VPR变异性与病毒丰度（VA）和叶绿素相关。总体而言，高海拔湿地记录的VPR平均值最高（53.22±95.09），其次是大洋，南大洋（21.91±25.72）、大西洋（19.57±15.77）和印度洋（13.43±16.12），然后是南极湖泊（11.37±15.82）和太平洋（6.34±3.79）。理化变量，即温度、电导率、营养物质（硝酸盐、铵和磷酸盐）以及作为生物变量的叶绿素，被发现驱动了所分析生态系统中的VPR。因此，基于更多元数据分析的先前报告显示，该湿地中的病毒活性遵循类似趋势。总的来说，这项研究强调了将病毒作为生物变量纳入研究湿地微生物时间动态的重要性，因为它们在南半球这些未充分研究的生态系统的碳预算中起着关键作用。
