Phages in vermicomposts enrich functional gene content and facilitate pesticide degradation in soil

Chao, Huizhen; Balcazar, Jose Luis; Wu, Yunling; Cai, Anjuan; Ye, Mao; Sun, Mingming; Hu, Feng

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2023.108175

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 42 publications

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“…For example, phage AMGs have been associated with the breakdown of harmful pollutants, including atrazine degradation gene trzN in atrazine-contaminated soil (Ghosh et al 2008 ), the arsenic resistance gene arsC in lysogenic soil viruses (Tang et al 2019 ), and the virus-encoded L-2-haloacid dehalogenase gene (L-DEX) in organochlorine-contaminated soil (Zheng et al 2022 ). Moreover, the presence of phage AMGs in vermicompost has been linked to both metabolism and pesticide biodegradation (Chao et al 2023 ), while chromium-induced stress can enrich AMGs that contribute to microbial heavy metal detoxification and survival in stressful soil environments (Huang et al 2021 ). Beyond helping host bacteria to survive in contaminated environments, phage AMGs can also be involved in the carbon and nitrogen cycling in agricultural soils (Roux and Emerson 2022 ), and participate in carbon and sulfur transformation in agricultural slurry (Cook et al 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of rhizosphere phages in soil health

Wang,

Tang,

Yue

et al. 2024

FEMS Microbiology Ecology

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While the One Health framework has emphasized the importance of soil microbiomes for plant and human health, one of the most diverse and abundant groups—bacterial viruses, i.e. phages—has been mostly neglected. This perspective reviews the significance of phages for plant health in rhizosphere and explores their ecological and evolutionary impacts on soil ecosystems. We first summarize our current understanding of the diversity and ecological roles of phages in soil microbiomes in terms of nutrient cycling, top-down density regulation and pathogen suppression. We then consider how phages drive bacterial evolution in soils by promoting horizontal gene transfer, encoding auxiliary metabolic genes that increase host bacterial fitness and selecting for phage-resistant mutants with altered ecology due to trade-offs with pathogen competitiveness and virulence. Finally, we consider challenges and avenues for phage research in soil ecosystems and how to elucidate the significance of phages for microbial ecology and evolution and soil ecosystem functioning in the future. We conclude that similar to bacteria, phages likely play important roles in connecting different One Health compartments, affecting microbiome diversity and functions in soils. From the applied perspective, phages could offer novel approaches to modulate and optimize microbial and microbe-plant interactions to enhance soil health.

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