High-level diversity of tailed phages, eukaryote-associated

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TitleHigh-level diversity of tailed phages, eukaryote-associated viruses, and virophage-like elements in the metaviromes of Antarctic soilsAbstractThe metaviromes of two distinct Antarctic hyperarid desert soil communities have been characterized. Hypolithic communities, cyanobacterium-dominated assemblages situated on the ventral surfaces of quartz pebbles embedded in the desert pavement, showed higher virus diversity than surface soils, which correlated with previous bacterial community studies. Prokaryotic viruses (i.e., phages) represented the largest viral component (particularly Mycobacterium phages) in both habitats, with an identical hierarchical sequence abundance of families of tailed phages (Siphoviridae > Myoviridae > Podoviridae). No archaeal viruses were found. Unexpectedly, cyanophages were poorly represented in both metaviromes and were phylogenetically distant from currently characterized cyanophages. Putative phage genomes were assembled and showed a high level of unaffiliated genes, mostly from hypolithic viruses. Moreover, unusual gene arrangements in which eukaryotic and prokaryotic virus-derived genes were found within identical genome segments were observed. Phycodnaviridae and Mimiviridae viruses were the second-mostabundant taxa and more numerous within open soil. Novel virophage-like sequences (within the Sputnik clade) were identified. These findings highlight high-level virus diversity and novel species discovery potential within Antarctic hyperarid soils and may serve as a starting point for future studies targeting specific viral groups. Copyright 2014, American Society for Microbiology.AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) (SANAP), the University of Waikato's NZTABS program, Antarctica New Zealand, and the University of Pretoria Genomics Research Institute. We also thank the Centre for High Performance Com- puting (CHPC), an initiative supported by the Department of Science and Technology of South Africa. E. M. Adriaenssens holds a Vice-Chancellor's Fellowship at the University of Pretoria, and O. Zablocki is supported by the NRF-DST Doctoral Innovation Fund. The opinions expressed and conclusions reached in this article are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF. We declare that we have no conflicts of interest.Funding DetailsDST, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology; NRF, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology

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1st AuthorZablocki, O. AuthorZablocki, O.van Zyl, L.Adriaenssens, E.Rubagotti, E.Tuffin, M.Cary, S.Cowan, D.Year2014JournalApplied and Environmental MicrobiologyVolume80Number22Pages6888-6897DOI10.1128/AEM.01525-14URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/recor.....0afece32c1d9132c51f93c102Keywordsrank5

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TypeArticleCitationZablocki, O., van Zyl, L., Adriaenssens, E., Rubagotti, E., Tuffin, M., Cary, S. and Cowan, D. (2014). High-level diversity of tailed phages, eukaryote-associated viruses, and virophage-like elements in the metaviromes of Antarctic soils. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 80(22): 6888-6897 IdentifierZablocki2014Relevancerank5

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Cary, S.