Soil Viruses Are Underexplored Players in Ecosystem Carbon Processing

ABSTRACT Rapidly thawing permafrost harbors ∼30 to 50% of global soil carbon, and the fate of this carbon remains unknown. Microorganisms will play a central role in its fate, and their viruses could modulate that impact via induced mortality and metabolic controls. Because of the challenges of reco...

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Autores principales: Gareth Trubl, Ho Bin Jang, Simon Roux, Joanne B. Emerson, Natalie Solonenko, Dean R. Vik, Lindsey Solden, Jared Ellenbogen, Alexander T. Runyon, Benjamin Bolduc, Ben J. Woodcroft, Scott R. Saleska, Gene W. Tyson, Kelly C. Wrighton, Matthew B. Sullivan, Virginia I. Rich
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Publicado: American Society for Microbiology 2018
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:c96d6a9b162d4928ab463475ebcb71182021-12-02T18:15:43ZSoil Viruses Are Underexplored Players in Ecosystem Carbon Processing10.1128/mSystems.00076-182379-5077https://doaj.org/article/c96d6a9b162d4928ab463475ebcb71182018-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mSystems.00076-18https://doaj.org/toc/2379-5077ABSTRACT Rapidly thawing permafrost harbors ∼30 to 50% of global soil carbon, and the fate of this carbon remains unknown. Microorganisms will play a central role in its fate, and their viruses could modulate that impact via induced mortality and metabolic controls. Because of the challenges of recovering viruses from soils, little is known about soil viruses or their role(s) in microbial biogeochemical cycling. Here, we describe 53 viral populations (viral operational taxonomic units [vOTUs]) recovered from seven quantitatively derived (i.e., not multiple-displacement-amplified) viral-particle metagenomes (viromes) along a permafrost thaw gradient at the Stordalen Mire field site in northern Sweden. Only 15% of these vOTUs had genetic similarity to publicly available viruses in the RefSeq database, and ∼30% of the genes could be annotated, supporting the concept of soils as reservoirs of substantial undescribed viral genetic diversity. The vOTUs exhibited distinct ecology, with different distributions along the thaw gradient habitats, and a shift from soil-virus-like assemblages in the dry palsas to aquatic-virus-like assemblages in the inundated fen. Seventeen vOTUs were linked to microbial hosts (in silico), implicating viruses in infecting abundant microbial lineages from Acidobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Deltaproteobacteria, including those encoding key biogeochemical functions such as organic matter degradation. Thirty auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) were identified and suggested virus-mediated modulation of central carbon metabolism, soil organic matter degradation, polysaccharide binding, and regulation of sporulation. Together, these findings suggest that these soil viruses have distinct ecology, impact host-mediated biogeochemistry, and likely impact ecosystem function in the rapidly changing Arctic. IMPORTANCE This work is part of a 10-year project to examine thawing permafrost peatlands and is the first virome-particle-based approach to characterize viruses in these systems. This method yielded >2-fold-more viral populations (vOTUs) per gigabase of metagenome than vOTUs derived from bulk-soil metagenomes from the same site (J. B. Emerson, S. Roux, J. R. Brum, B. Bolduc, et al., Nat Microbiol 3:870–880, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0190-y). We compared the ecology of the recovered vOTUs along a permafrost thaw gradient and found (i) habitat specificity, (ii) a shift in viral community identity from soil-like to aquatic-like viruses, (iii) infection of dominant microbial hosts, and (iv) carriage of host metabolic genes. These vOTUs can impact ecosystem carbon processing via top-down (inferred from lysing dominant microbial hosts) and bottom-up (inferred from carriage of auxiliary metabolic genes) controls. This work serves as a foundation which future studies can build upon to increase our understanding of the soil virosphere and how viruses affect soil ecosystem services.Gareth TrublHo Bin JangSimon RouxJoanne B. EmersonNatalie SolonenkoDean R. VikLindsey SoldenJared EllenbogenAlexander T. RunyonBenjamin BolducBen J. WoodcroftScott R. SaleskaGene W. TysonKelly C. WrightonMatthew B. SullivanVirginia I. RichAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleArcticcarbon cyclingenvironmental microbiologymicrobial ecologypeatlandspermafrostMicrobiologyQR1-502ENmSystems, Vol 3, Iss 5 (2018)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Arctic
carbon cycling
environmental microbiology
microbial ecology
peatlands
permafrost
Microbiology
QR1-502
spellingShingle Arctic
carbon cycling
environmental microbiology
microbial ecology
peatlands
permafrost
Microbiology
QR1-502
Gareth Trubl
Ho Bin Jang
Simon Roux
Joanne B. Emerson
Natalie Solonenko
Dean R. Vik
Lindsey Solden
Jared Ellenbogen
Alexander T. Runyon
Benjamin Bolduc
Ben J. Woodcroft
Scott R. Saleska
Gene W. Tyson
Kelly C. Wrighton
Matthew B. Sullivan
Virginia I. Rich
Soil Viruses Are Underexplored Players in Ecosystem Carbon Processing
description ABSTRACT Rapidly thawing permafrost harbors ∼30 to 50% of global soil carbon, and the fate of this carbon remains unknown. Microorganisms will play a central role in its fate, and their viruses could modulate that impact via induced mortality and metabolic controls. Because of the challenges of recovering viruses from soils, little is known about soil viruses or their role(s) in microbial biogeochemical cycling. Here, we describe 53 viral populations (viral operational taxonomic units [vOTUs]) recovered from seven quantitatively derived (i.e., not multiple-displacement-amplified) viral-particle metagenomes (viromes) along a permafrost thaw gradient at the Stordalen Mire field site in northern Sweden. Only 15% of these vOTUs had genetic similarity to publicly available viruses in the RefSeq database, and ∼30% of the genes could be annotated, supporting the concept of soils as reservoirs of substantial undescribed viral genetic diversity. The vOTUs exhibited distinct ecology, with different distributions along the thaw gradient habitats, and a shift from soil-virus-like assemblages in the dry palsas to aquatic-virus-like assemblages in the inundated fen. Seventeen vOTUs were linked to microbial hosts (in silico), implicating viruses in infecting abundant microbial lineages from Acidobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Deltaproteobacteria, including those encoding key biogeochemical functions such as organic matter degradation. Thirty auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) were identified and suggested virus-mediated modulation of central carbon metabolism, soil organic matter degradation, polysaccharide binding, and regulation of sporulation. Together, these findings suggest that these soil viruses have distinct ecology, impact host-mediated biogeochemistry, and likely impact ecosystem function in the rapidly changing Arctic. IMPORTANCE This work is part of a 10-year project to examine thawing permafrost peatlands and is the first virome-particle-based approach to characterize viruses in these systems. This method yielded >2-fold-more viral populations (vOTUs) per gigabase of metagenome than vOTUs derived from bulk-soil metagenomes from the same site (J. B. Emerson, S. Roux, J. R. Brum, B. Bolduc, et al., Nat Microbiol 3:870–880, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-018-0190-y). We compared the ecology of the recovered vOTUs along a permafrost thaw gradient and found (i) habitat specificity, (ii) a shift in viral community identity from soil-like to aquatic-like viruses, (iii) infection of dominant microbial hosts, and (iv) carriage of host metabolic genes. These vOTUs can impact ecosystem carbon processing via top-down (inferred from lysing dominant microbial hosts) and bottom-up (inferred from carriage of auxiliary metabolic genes) controls. This work serves as a foundation which future studies can build upon to increase our understanding of the soil virosphere and how viruses affect soil ecosystem services.
format article
author Gareth Trubl
Ho Bin Jang
Simon Roux
Joanne B. Emerson
Natalie Solonenko
Dean R. Vik
Lindsey Solden
Jared Ellenbogen
Alexander T. Runyon
Benjamin Bolduc
Ben J. Woodcroft
Scott R. Saleska
Gene W. Tyson
Kelly C. Wrighton
Matthew B. Sullivan
Virginia I. Rich
author_facet Gareth Trubl
Ho Bin Jang
Simon Roux
Joanne B. Emerson
Natalie Solonenko
Dean R. Vik
Lindsey Solden
Jared Ellenbogen
Alexander T. Runyon
Benjamin Bolduc
Ben J. Woodcroft
Scott R. Saleska
Gene W. Tyson
Kelly C. Wrighton
Matthew B. Sullivan
Virginia I. Rich
author_sort Gareth Trubl
title Soil Viruses Are Underexplored Players in Ecosystem Carbon Processing
title_short Soil Viruses Are Underexplored Players in Ecosystem Carbon Processing
title_full Soil Viruses Are Underexplored Players in Ecosystem Carbon Processing
title_fullStr Soil Viruses Are Underexplored Players in Ecosystem Carbon Processing
title_full_unstemmed Soil Viruses Are Underexplored Players in Ecosystem Carbon Processing
title_sort soil viruses are underexplored players in ecosystem carbon processing
publisher American Society for Microbiology
publishDate 2018
url https://doaj.org/article/c96d6a9b162d4928ab463475ebcb7118
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