Shotgun metagenomics indicates novel family A DNA polymerases predominate within marine virioplankton.

ABSTRACT: Virioplankton have a significant role in marine ecosystems, yet we know little of the predominant biological characteristics of aquatic viruses that influence the flow of nutrients and energy through microbial communities. Family A DNA polymerases, critical to DNA replication and repair in prokaryotes, are found in many tailed bacteriophages. The essential role of DNA polymerase in viral replication makes it a useful target for connecting viral diversity with an important biological feature of viruses. Capturing the full diversity of this polymorphic gene by targeted approaches has been difficult; thus, full-length DNA polymerase genes were assembled out of virioplankton shotgun metagenomic sequence libraries (viromes). Within the viromes novel DNA polymerases were common and found in both

SUBMITTER: Schmidt HF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3869006 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature