Lower viral evolutionary pressure under stable versus fluctuating conditions in subzero Arctic brines.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Climate change threatens Earth's ice-based ecosystems which currently offer archives and eco-evolutionary experiments in the extreme. Arctic cryopeg brine (marine-derived, within permafrost) and sea ice brine, similar in subzero temperature and high salinity but different in temporal stability, are inhabited by microbes adapted to these extreme conditions. However, little is known about their viruses (community composition, diversity, interaction with hosts, or evolution) or how they might respond to geologically stable cryopeg versus fluctuating sea ice conditions.

Results

We used long- and short-read viromics and metatranscriptomics to study viruses in Arctic cryopeg brine, sea ice brine, and underlying seawater, recovering 11,088 vOTUs (~species-level taxonomic

SUBMITTER: Zhong ZP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10405475 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature