Discovery of several novel, widespread, and ecologically distinct marine Thaumarchaeota viruses that encode amoC nitrification genes.

ABSTRACT: Much of the diversity of prokaryotic viruses has yet to be described. In particular, there are no viral isolates that infect abundant, globally significant marine archaea including the phylum Thaumarchaeota. This phylum oxidizes ammonia, fixes inorganic carbon, and thus contributes to globally significant nitrogen and carbon cycles in the oceans. Metagenomics provides an alternative to culture-dependent means for identifying and characterizing viral diversity. Some viruses carry auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) that are acquired via horizontal gene transfer from their host(s), allowing inference of what host a virus infects. Here we present the discovery of 15 new genomically and ecologically distinct Thaumarchaeota virus populations, identified as contigs that encode viral capsid and thau

SUBMITTER: Ahlgren NA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6462027 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature