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Isolation and Genome Analysis of Single Virions using 'Single Virus Genomics'
Published on: May 26, 2013
Metagenomics Reveals a Novel Virophage Population in a Tibetan Mountain Lake
Seungdae Oh1, Dongwan Yoo, Wen-Tso Liu
1School of Civil and Environmental Engineerin, Nanyang Technological University.
Abstract:
Virophages are parasites of giant viruses that infect eukaryotic organisms and may affect the ecology of inland water ecosystems. Despite the potential ecological impact, limited information is available on the distribution, diversity, and hosts of virophages in ecosystems. Metagenomics revealed that virophages were widely distributed in inland waters with various environmental characteristics including salinity and nutrient availability. A novel virophage population was overrepresented in a planktonic microbial community of the Tibetan mountain lake, Lake Qinghai. Our study identified coccolithophores and coccolithovirus-like phycodnaviruses in the same community, which may serve as eukaryotic and viral hosts of the virophage population, respectively.
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