Marine viruses — major players in the global ecosystem

Suttle, Curtis A.

doi:10.1038/nrmicro1750

Cited by 2,589 publications

(2,307 citation statements)

References 163 publications

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“…Viruses are increasingly considered as part of efforts to understand the factors controlling marine microbial mortality, productivity, and biogeochemical cycles [8,9,19,39,45,55]. Quantitative estimates of these viralinduced effects can be measured directly, but are often inferred indirectly, using the relative abundance of viruses to prokaryotes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The minimal predictive value of prokaryoate abundances in the near-surface when aggregating across all surveys is problematic given that virus-microbe interactions have significant roles in driving prokaryote mortality and ecosystem functioning [9,45,53]. Indeed the aggregation of abundance measurements in terms of total prokaryote abundances may represent part of the problem.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2016

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“…The recent discovery of viral abundance and diversity of natural environment caused a huge interest to viral ecology [10,[21][22][23]. Allochthonous and autochthonous viruses have a crucial influence on the microbial ecosystem.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was found that the interrelation of respective phages and bacteria makes up the same balance as the ratio of predators and rodents in the macrocosm. Viruses are responsible for 20-40% of marine microbial mortality [23]. Viral-induced lysis of microbes redirects organic matter back into the microbial loop and away from microalgae, zooplankton Comparative study of viromes from freshwater samples of the Ile-Balkhash region of Kazakhstan… 21 and fish [4,24].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

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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“…2014). In the ocean, viruses are by far the most abundant biological entity and behind prokaryotes constitute the second largest pool of biomass (Suttle 2007). Viruses are obligate parasites and lack the ability for active movement making finding the right host organism a stochastic process that is abundance‐dependent (Murray and Jackson 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixing alters the lytic activity of viruses in the dark ocean

Winter

Köstner

Kruspe

et al. 2018

Ecology

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In aquatic habitats, viral lysis of prokaryotic cells lowers the overall efficiency of the microbial loop, by which dissolved organic carbon is transfered to higher trophic levels. Mixing of water masses in the dark ocean occurs on a global scale and may have far reaching consequences for the different prokaryotic and virus communities found in these waters by altering the environmental conditions these communities experience. We hypothesize that mixing of deep ocean water masses enhances the lytic activity of viruses infecting prokaryotes. To address this hypothesis, major deep‐sea water masses of the Atlantic Ocean such as North Atlantic Deep Water, Mediterranean Sea Overflow Water, Antarctic Intermediate Water, and Antarctic Bottom Water were sampled at five locations. Prokaryotic cells from these samples were collected by filtration and subsequently incubated in virus‐reduced water from either the same (control) or a different water mass (transplantation treatment). Additionally, mixtures of prokaryotes obtained from two different water masses were incubated in a mixture of virus‐reduced water from the same water masses (control) or in virus‐reduced water from the source water masses separately (mixing treatments). Pronounced differences in productivity‐related parameters (prokaryotic leucine incorporation, prokaryotic and viral abundance) between water masses caused strong changes in viral lysis of prokaryotes. Often, mixing of water masses increased viral lysis of prokaryotes, indicating that lysogenic viruses were induced into the lytic cycle. Mixing‐induced changes in viral lysis had a strong effect on the community composition of prokaryotes and viruses. Our data show that mixing of deep‐sea water masses alters levels of viral lysis of prokaryotes and in many cases weakens the efficiency of the microbial loop by enhancing the recycling of organic carbon in the deep ocean.

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Marine viruses — major players in the global ecosystem

Cited by 2,589 publications

References 163 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

Mixing alters the lytic activity of viruses in the dark ocean

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