Spatial distribution of viruses associated with planktonic and attached microbial communities in hydrothermal environments.

ABSTRACT: Viruses play important roles in marine surface ecosystems, but little is known about viral ecology and virus-mediated processes in deep-sea hydrothermal microbial communities. In this study, we examined virus-like particle (VLP) abundances in planktonic and attached microbial communities, which occur in physical and chemical gradients in both deep and shallow submarine hydrothermal environments (mixing waters between hydrothermal fluids and ambient seawater and dense microbial communities attached to chimney surface areas or macrofaunal bodies and colonies). We found that viruses were widely distributed in a variety of hydrothermal microbial habitats, with the exception of the interior parts of hydrothermal chimney structures. The VLP abundance and VLP-to-prokaryote ratio (VPR) in the plan

SUBMITTER: Yoshida-Takashima Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3294471 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature