Highly diverse and unknown viruses may enhance Antarctic endoliths' adaptability.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Rock-dwelling microorganisms are key players in ecosystem functioning of Antarctic ice free-areas. Yet, little is known about their diversity and ecology, and further still, viruses in these communities have been largely unexplored despite important roles related to host metabolism and nutrient cycling. To begin to address this, we present a large-scale viral catalog from Antarctic rock microbial communities.

Results

We performed metagenomic analyses on rocks from across Antarctica representing a broad range of environmental and spatial conditions, and which resulted in a predicted viral catalog comprising > 75,000 viral operational taxonomic units (vOTUS). We found largely undescribed, highly diverse and spatially structured virus communities which had predicted

SUBMITTER: Ettinger CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10165816 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature