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Tales from a thousand and one phages.
Francisco Rodriguez-Valera1, Carolina Megumi Mizuno1, Rohit Ghai1
1Evolutionary Genomics Group; Universidad Miguel Hernandez; Campus de San Juan; Alicante, Spain.
Bacteriophage
|March 12, 2014
Summary
Marine metagenomic sequencing revealed novel phage genomes, including the first phages infecting Verrucomicrobia and Ca. Actinomarinales. Astonishing diversity was found, with only a small fraction of the total marine phage population identified.
Area of Science:
- Marine microbiology
- Virology
- Genomics
Background:
- Marine environments harbor vast microbial diversity.
- Phages are crucial drivers of microbial population dynamics and evolution.
- Metagenomic approaches enable the study of unculturable microbes and their viruses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and characterize novel marine phage genomes from metagenomic data.
- To assess the diversity of phages infecting underrepresented marine prokaryotic phyla.
- To compare phage diversity recovered from fosmid sequencing with metaviromic data.
Main Methods:
- Sequencing of marine metagenomic fosmids.
- Bioinformatic analysis for phage genome identification and grouping.
- Comparison with existing metavirome datasets.
Main Results:
- Discovery of several new complete phage genomes.
- Identification of 10 novel marine phage groups.
- First report of phages infecting Verrucomicrobia and Ca. Actinomarinales.
- Indication of extensive unrecovered phage diversity (only 2% recovered).
- Detection of significant micro-diversity in host-recognition modules.
Conclusions:
- Marine metagenomics is a powerful tool for discovering novel phages.
- Marine phages exhibit remarkable diversity, infecting a wide range of prokaryotes.
- Phage diversity reflects the adaptation to host cell surface variations.
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