Viral niche-partitioning: comparative genomics of giant viruses across environmental gradients in a high Arctic freshwater-saltwater lake.

ABSTRACT: Giant viruses (GVs; Nucleocytoviricota) impact the biology and ecology of a wide range of eukaryotic hosts, with implications for global biogeochemical cycles. Here, we investigated GV niche separation in highly stratified Lake A at the northern coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. This lake is composed of a layer of ice-covered freshwater that overlies saltwater derived from the ancient Arctic Ocean, and it therefore provides a broad gradient of environmental conditions and ecological habitats, each with a distinct protist community and rich assemblages of associated GVs. The upper layer (mixolimnion) had measurable light and oxygen, and contained diverse GVs linked to photosynthetic protists, indicating adaptation to surface biotic and abiotic conditions. In contrast, the s

SUBMITTER: Pitot TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11745019 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature