Ecological interactions between marine RNA viruses and planktonic copepods

The interactions between zooplankton and viruses, which have been overlooked despite their crucial roles in marine ecosystems, are investigated in the copepod Pseudocalanus newmani. Copepod transcriptome data reveal four novel RNA viruses and weekly zooplankton samplings detect all viruses with different prevalence peaks during low-abundance periods of P. newmani. In addition to water temperature and food quality, our results suggest that marine virus is one of the factors controlling copepod population dynamics. Gene expression analysis indicates possible increased viral replication and decreased copepod movement in P. newmani with the Picorna-like virus, which is closely related to phytoplankton viruses, and metabarcoding diet analysis detects diatoms as P. newmani's major prey. Viral-like particles are observed in the gut contents of copepods during the high prevalence of this virus, suggesting infected copepod prey may affect copepod physiology. These results show that investigating zooplankton-virus interactions can provide a better understanding of marine ecosystems.