Viral Communities of Shark Bay Modern Stromatolites

Single stranded DNA viruses have been previously shown to populate the oceans on a global scale, and are endemic in microbialites of both marine and freshwater systems. We undertook for the first time direct viral metagenomic shotgun sequencing to explore the diversity of viruses in the modern strom...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in microbiology 2018-06, Vol.9, p.1223-1223
Main Authors: White Iii, Richard Allen, Wong, Hon L, Ruvindy, Rendy, Neilan, Brett A, Burns, Brendan P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
BREX
CRISPR-Cas
Microbiology
Shark Bay
ssDNA viruses
stromatolites
viral defense
viral metagenomics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Single stranded DNA viruses have been previously shown to populate the oceans on a global scale, and are endemic in microbialites of both marine and freshwater systems. We undertook for the first time direct viral metagenomic shotgun sequencing to explore the diversity of viruses in the modern stromatolites of Shark Bay Australia. The data indicate that Shark Bay marine stromatolites have similar diversity of ssDNA viruses to that of Highbourne Cay, Bahamas. ssDNA viruses in cluster uniquely in Shark Bay and Highbourne Cay, potentially due to enrichment by phi29-mediated amplification bias. Further, pyrosequencing data was assembled from the Shark Bay systems into two putative viral genomes that are related to family of ssDNA viruses. In addition, the cellular fraction was shown to be enriched for antiviral defense genes including CRISPR-Cas, BREX (bacteriophage exclusion), and DISARM (defense island system associated with restriction-modification), a potentially novel finding for these systems. This is the first evidence for viruses in the Shark Bay stromatolites, and these viruses may play key roles in modulating microbial diversity as well as potentially impacting ecosystem function through infection and the recycling of key nutrients.
ISSN:1664-302X
1664-302X
DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2018.01223