IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-24803-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lytic archaeal viruses infect abundant primary producers in Earth’s crust

Author

Listed:
  • Janina Rahlff

    (University of Duisburg-Essen
    Linnaeus University)

  • Victoria Turzynski

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

  • Sarah P. Esser

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

  • Indra Monsees

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

  • Till L. V. Bornemann

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

  • Perla Abigail Figueroa-Gonzalez

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

  • Frederik Schulz

    (DOE Joint Genome Institute)

  • Tanja Woyke

    (DOE Joint Genome Institute)

  • Andreas Klingl

    (Biocenter LMU Munich)

  • Cristina Moraru

    (Carl-von-Ossietzky-University Oldenburg)

  • Alexander J. Probst

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

Abstract

The continental subsurface houses a major portion of life’s abundance and diversity, yet little is known about viruses infecting microbes that reside there. Here, we use a combination of metagenomics and virus-targeted direct-geneFISH (virusFISH) to show that highly abundant carbon-fixing organisms of the uncultivated genus Candidatus Altiarchaeum are frequent targets of previously unrecognized viruses in the deep subsurface. Analysis of CRISPR spacer matches display resistances of Ca. Altiarchaea against eight predicted viral clades, which show genomic relatedness across continents but little similarity to previously identified viruses. Based on metagenomic information, we tag and image a putatively viral genome rich in protospacers using fluorescence microscopy. VirusFISH reveals a lytic lifestyle of the respective virus and challenges previous predictions that lysogeny prevails as the dominant viral lifestyle in the subsurface. CRISPR development over time and imaging of 18 samples from one subsurface ecosystem suggest a sophisticated interplay of viral diversification and adapting CRISPR-mediated resistances of Ca. Altiarchaeum. We conclude that infections of primary producers with lytic viruses followed by cell lysis potentially jump-start heterotrophic carbon cycling in these subsurface ecosystems.

Suggested Citation

  • Janina Rahlff & Victoria Turzynski & Sarah P. Esser & Indra Monsees & Till L. V. Bornemann & Perla Abigail Figueroa-Gonzalez & Frederik Schulz & Tanja Woyke & Andreas Klingl & Cristina Moraru & Alexan, 2021. "Lytic archaeal viruses infect abundant primary producers in Earth’s crust," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24803-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24803-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24803-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-24803-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shaoming Gao & David Paez-Espino & Jintian Li & Hongxia Ai & Jieliang Liang & Zhenhao Luo & Jin Zheng & Hao Chen & Wensheng Shu & Linan Huang, 2022. "Patterns and ecological drivers of viral communities in acid mine drainage sediments across Southern China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Ran Li & Yongming Wang & Han Hu & Yan Tan & Yingfei Ma, 2022. "Metagenomic analysis reveals unexplored diversity of archaeal virome in the human gut," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Zongzhi Wu & Tang Liu & Qian Chen & Tianyi Chen & Jinyun Hu & Liyu Sun & Bingxue Wang & Wenpeng Li & Jinren Ni, 2024. "Unveiling the unknown viral world in groundwater," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Yongming Wang & Ran Li & Yingfei Ma, 2024. "Reply to: Inaccurate viral prediction leads to overestimated diversity of the archaeal virome in the human gut," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-3, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24803-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.