Genomic adaptation of giant viruses in polar oceans.

ABSTRACT: Despite being perennially frigid, polar oceans form an ecosystem hosting high and unique biodiversity. Various organisms show different adaptive strategies in this habitat, but how viruses adapt to this environment is largely unknown. Viruses of phyla Nucleocytoviricota and Mirusviricota are groups of eukaryote-infecting large and giant DNA viruses with genomes encoding a variety of functions. Here, by leveraging the Global Ocean Eukaryotic Viral database, we investigate the biogeography and functional repertoire of these viruses at a global scale. We first confirm the existence of an ecological barrier that clearly separates polar and nonpolar viral communities, and then demonstrate that temperature drives dramatic changes in the virus-host network at the polar-nonpolar boundary. Ancestra

SUBMITTER: Meng L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10570341 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature