Sun Xumei, Zhang Xinyi, Zhang Xiaobo
College of Life Sciences, Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology of Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao) and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, People's Republic of China; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, People's Republic of China.
College of Life Sciences, Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology of Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao) and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, People's Republic of China.
Environ Int. 2024 Dec;194:109183. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2024.109183. Epub 2024 Dec 7.
Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on the earth. Some ancient viruses can revive from permafrost along with melting to infect the current hosts. The "zombie viruses" trapped in the ancient deep-sea sediments become the public health concern due to the environmental changes and human activities in deep oceans. However, the biosecurity risk of benthic viruses has not been explored. Here, two viruses purified from the ancient deep-sea sediments were infectious to the bacteria of terrestrial soil. Furthermore, the benthic viruses were purified from each of 106 deep-sea sediments with 1,900-17,300 years old and then the biothreats of deep-sea viruses to terrestrial soil were evaluated on a global scale. The results revealed that the viruses purified from each of 9 sediments could disturb the native bacterial communities in soil and destroy the soil functions. These viruses with the capacity to invade soil were widely distributed in the abyssal sea. Therefore, our findings highlighted the revitalized risks of deep-sea ancient viruses to terrestrial soil ecosystems for the first time. The biosecurity of deep-sea viruses to terrestrial soil should be assessed before performing deep-sea mining and scientific activities.
病毒是地球上数量最为丰富的生物实体。一些古老病毒会随着永久冻土的融化而复苏，进而感染当前的宿主。被困在古老深海沉积物中的“僵尸病毒”，由于深海环境变化和人类活动，已成为公共卫生问题。然而，底栖病毒的生物安全风险尚未得到探究。在此，从古老深海沉积物中纯化出的两种病毒可感染陆地土壤细菌。此外，从106份年龄在1900至17300年的深海沉积物中分别纯化出底栖病毒，然后在全球范围内评估深海病毒对陆地土壤的生物威胁。结果显示，从9份沉积物中纯化出的病毒能够扰乱土壤中的原生细菌群落并破坏土壤功能。这些具有入侵土壤能力的病毒广泛分布于深海区域。因此，我们的研究首次突出了深海古老病毒对陆地土壤生态系统的复苏风险。在进行深海采矿和科学活动之前，应评估深海病毒对陆地土壤的生物安全性。
