Viral community analysis in a marine oxygen minimum zone indicates increased potential for viral manipulation of microbial physiological state.

ABSTRACT: Microbial communities in oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are known to have significant impacts on global biogeochemical cycles, but viral influence on microbial processes in these regions are much less studied. Here we provide baseline ecological patterns using microscopy and viral metagenomics from the Eastern Tropical North Pacific (ETNP) OMZ region that enhance our understanding of viruses in these climate-critical systems. While extracellular viral abundance decreased below the oxycline, viral diversity and lytic infection frequency remained high within the OMZ, demonstrating that viral influences on microbial communities were still substantial without the detectable presence of oxygen. Viral community composition was strongly related to oxygen concentration, with viral populations in low-

SUBMITTER: Jurgensen SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8940887 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature