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Environmental Sampling of Photosynthetic Microbes and Their Viruses: From Field to Lab
08:01

Environmental Sampling of Photosynthetic Microbes and Their Viruses: From Field to Lab

Published on: July 3, 2025

Viral and microbial community dynamics in four aquatic environments.

Beltran Rodriguez-Brito1, Linlin Li, Linda Wegley

  • 1Computational Science Research Center, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-1245, USA. beltran.rodriguezbrito@gmail.com

The ISME Journal
|February 12, 2010
PubMed
Summary

Microbial and viral communities appear stable, but rapid shifts in viral genotypes and microbial strains occur. This suggests a "Kill-the-Winner" dynamic at a finer level, maintaining ecosystem stability.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbial ecology
  • Virology
  • Ecosystem dynamics

Background:

  • Ecosystems typically exhibit stable species composition and metabolic potential.
  • Theoretical models and simple ecosystems show "Kill-the-Winner" dynamics, causing dominant taxa cycling.
  • This contrasts with the observed stability in complex, human-controlled aquatic environments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the underlying dynamics of microbial and viral communities in stable aquatic ecosystems.
  • To reconcile the apparent stability with theoretical models predicting cyclical changes.
  • To identify the level at which community fluctuations occur.

Main Methods:

  • Metagenomic sequencing of microbial and viral communities.
  • Sampling across various time points (1 day to >1 year) in four human-controlled aquatic environments.
  • Analysis of species composition, metabolic potential, viral genotypes, and microbial strains.

Main Results:

  • Despite overall stable species composition and metabolic potential, rapid changes were observed at the fine-grained level of viral genotypes and microbial strains.
  • Functionally redundant microbial and viral taxa were found to be cycling.
  • The study identified a "Kill-the-Winner" mechanism operating at the level of viral genotypes and virus-sensitive microbial strains.

Conclusions:

  • Stable ecosystems harbor persistent microbial taxa, viral taxa, and metabolic functions.
  • Community fluctuations occur at the level of viral genotypes and microbial strains, driven by a "Kill-the-Winner" dynamic.
  • This fine-grained cycling maintains the overall stability of the ecosystem.