High abundance of viruses found in aquatic environments

Bergh, Øivind; Børsheim, Knut Yngve; Bratbak, Gunnar; Heldal, Mikal

doi:10.1038/340467a0

Cited by 1,399 publications

(984 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Bergh et al [4] 1990 Report of virus particles ranging from 10 6 -10 11 per liter, infecting up to 7% of heterotrophic bacteria and each infected cell containing 10-100 mature virions…”

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confidence: 99%

Re-examination of the relationship between marine virus and microbial cell abundances

et al. 2016

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Marine viruses are critical drivers of ocean biogeochemistry and their abundances vary spatiotemporally in the global oceans, with upper estimates exceeding 10 8 per ml. Over many years, a consensus has emerged that virus abundances are typically 10-fold higher than prokaryote abundances. The use of a fixed-ratio suggests that the relationship between virus and prokaryote abundances is both predictable and linear. However, the true explanatory power of a linear relationship and its robustness across diverse ocean environments is unclear. Here, we compile 5671 prokaryote and virus abundance estimates from 25 distinct marine surveys to characterize the relationship between virus and prokaryote abundances. We find that the median virus-to-prokaryote ratio (VPR) is 10:1 and 16:1 in the near-and sub-surface oceans, respectively. Nonetheless, we observe substantial variation in the VPR and find either no or limited explanatory power using fixed-ratio models. Instead, virus abundances are better described as nonlinear, power-law functions of prokaryote abundances -particularly when considering relationships within distinct marine surveys. Estimated power-laws have scaling exponents that are typically less than 1, signifying that the VPR decreases with prokaryote density, rather than remaining fixed. The emergence of power-law scaling presents a challenge for mechanistic models seeking to understand the ecological causes and consequences of marine virusmicrobe interactions. Such power-law scaling also implies that efforts to average viral effects on microbial mortality and biogeochemical cycles using "representative" abundances or abundanceratios need to be refined if they are to be utilized to make quantitative predictions at regional or global ocean scales.

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“…Bergh et al [4] 1990 Report of virus particles ranging from 10 6 -10 11 per liter, infecting up to 7% of heterotrophic bacteria and each infected cell containing 10-100 mature virions…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-examination of the relationship between marine virus and microbial cell abundances

et al. 2016

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“…For example, the presence of viruses in water bodies has been known since the middle of last century [1,2]. However, an active research into their ecological importance in aquatic ecosystems has begun only with the works of Berg et al [3], who discovered a very high concentration of water viruses (up to 10 8 particles/ml), mostly classified as bacteriophages. Now it is proved that viruses are an important and integral part of biological communities of aquatic ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative study of viromes from freshwater samples of the Ile-Balkhash region of Kazakhstan captured through metagenomic analysis

et al. 2017

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Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth and can be found in a variety of environments. A high prevalence of viruses in marine and freshwater systems was initially reported by Spencer in 1955, but the ecological significance of viruses is insufficiently known even until the present day. Viruses are known to play a key role in the biology of freshwater bacteria: controlling the bacterial abundance, composition of species, and acting as intermediaries in the transfer of genes between bacterial populations. In our study a variety of viromes of the IleBalkhash water basin were identified. It was found that the composition of viruses of the Ile-Balkhash region is made up not only of a wide variety of autochthonous viruses typical for phytoplankton hydro ecosystems, but also of representatives of allochthonous viruses-such families as Coronaviridae, Reoviridae and Herpesviridae-indicating anthropogenic pollution of the basin. The research designed to investigate the viral abundance, spread, infectious cycle, seasonal dynamics, composition of the viral community, and the influence of viruses on the bacteria, phytoplankton and recycling of nutrients, as well as the impact of environmental factors on the viral ecology in a variety of marine and freshwater systems is very relevant nowadays.

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“…Viruses are the most abundant biological agents in marine aquatic environments (Bergh et al, 1989, Suttle 2000, Wommack and Colwell 2000 and it is likely that most microbial organisms can be infected with a particular virus. Therefore they play important roles in nutrient (Wilhelm and Suttle 1999) and biogeochemical (Fuhrmann 1999) cycling, and influence structure and diversity of microbial and phytoplankton communities (Fuhrmann 1999, Wommack andColwell 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pilot study of an EST approach of the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi during a virus infection

Kegel

Allen

Metfies

et al. 2007

Gene

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Blooms of the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi can be infected by viruses, which can lead to bloom-termination. This pilot study used an expressed sequence tag (EST) approach to get a first view of gene-expression changes that occur during viral infection of E. huxleyi. cDNA libraries were constructed from uninfected cultures and 6, 12, and 24 h after infection with E. huxleyi-specific virus 86 (EhV-86). From each library 60-90 ESTs were randomly selected and annotated manually with PhyloGena. Viral genes were identified using BLAST-Search of the known viral genome. The data of this study show, that 6 h after viral infection the algal transcriptome changed significantly although few viral transcripts were present. At this point, changes mainly concerned transcripts related to photosynthesis and protein metabolism. However, after 24 h viral transcripts were most abundant. Viral transcripts found at this stage of viral infection encode proteins involved in protein degradation, nucleic acid degradation, transcription and replication.

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High abundance of viruses found in aquatic environments

Cited by 1,399 publications

References 6 publications

Re-examination of the relationship between marine virus and microbial cell abundances

Re-examination of the relationship between marine virus and microbial cell abundances

Comparative study of viromes from freshwater samples of the Ile-Balkhash region of Kazakhstan captured through metagenomic analysis

Pilot study of an EST approach of the coccolithophorid Emiliania huxleyi during a virus infection

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