Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Center of Microbiome Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Environ Microbiol. 2024 Jul;26(8):e16665. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.16665.
Soil microorganisms are pivotal in the global carbon cycle, but the viruses that affect them and their impact on ecosystems are less understood. In this study, we explored the diversity, dynamics, and ecology of soil viruses through 379 metagenomes collected annually from 2010 to 2017. These samples spanned the seasonally thawed active layer of a permafrost thaw gradient, which included palsa, bog, and fen habitats. We identified 5051 virus operational taxonomic units (vOTUs), doubling the known viruses for this site. These vOTUs were largely ephemeral within habitats, suggesting a turnover at the vOTU level from year to year. While the diversity varied by thaw stage and depth-related patterns were specific to each habitat, the virus communities did not significantly change over time. The abundance ratios of virus to host at the phylum level did not show consistent trends across the thaw gradient, depth, or time. To assess potential ecosystem impacts, we predicted hosts in silico and found viruses linked to microbial lineages involved in the carbon cycle, such as methanotrophy and methanogenesis. This included the identification of viruses of Candidatus Methanoflorens, a significant global methane contributor. We also detected a variety of potential auxiliary metabolic genes, including 24 carbon-degrading glycoside hydrolases, six of which are uniquely terrestrial. In conclusion, these long-term observations enhance our understanding of soil viruses in the context of climate-relevant processes and provide opportunities to explore their role in terrestrial carbon cycling.
土壤微生物在全球碳循环中起着关键作用，但对影响它们的病毒及其对生态系统的影响了解较少。在这项研究中，我们通过 2010 年至 2017 年每年采集的 379 个宏基因组，探索了土壤病毒的多样性、动态和生态学。这些样本涵盖了多年冻土解冻梯度的季节性解冻活动层，包括冰沼、沼泽和湿地生境。我们鉴定了 5051 个病毒分类操作单元（vOTU），使该地点已知的病毒数量增加了一倍。这些 vOTU 在生境中大多是短暂的，这表明每年在 vOTU 水平上都有更替。虽然多样性因解冻阶段而异，深度相关模式特定于每个生境，但病毒群落并没有随着时间的推移而显著变化。在门水平上病毒与宿主的丰度比并没有在整个解冻梯度、深度或时间上表现出一致的趋势。为了评估潜在的生态系统影响，我们在计算机上预测了宿主，并发现了与参与碳循环的微生物谱系有关的病毒，如甲烷营养和甲烷生成。这包括鉴定到了对全球甲烷贡献巨大的疑似 Methanoflorens 甲烷菌的病毒。我们还检测到了多种潜在的辅助代谢基因，包括 24 种碳降解糖苷水解酶，其中 6 种是独特的陆地酶。总之，这些长期观测结果增强了我们对与气候相关过程背景下土壤病毒的理解，并为探索其在陆地碳循环中的作用提供了机会。
