Auxiliary Metabolic Gene Functions in Pelagic and Benthic Viruses of the Baltic Sea.

ABSTRACT: Marine microbial communities are facing various ecosystem fluctuations (e.g., temperature, organic matter concentration, salinity, or redox regimes) and thus have to be highly adaptive. This might be supported by the acquisition of auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) originating from virus infections. Marine bacteriophages frequently contain AMGs, which allow them to augment their host's metabolism or enhance virus fitness. These genes encode proteins for the same metabolic functions as their highly similar host homologs. In the present study, we analyzed the diversity, distribution, and composition of marine viruses, focusing on AMGs to identify their putative ecologic role. We analyzed viruses and assemblies of 212 publicly available metagenomes obtained from sediment and water samples acro

SUBMITTER: Heyerhoff B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9301287 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature