Patterns and ecological drivers of ocean viral communities

Brum, Jennifer R. ... et. al.-- 10 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, supplementary material www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6237/1261498/suppl/DC1

Viruses influence ecosystems by modulating microbial population size, diversity, metabolic outputs, and gene flow. Here, we use quantitative double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viral-fraction metagenomes (viromes) and whole viral community morphological data sets from 43 Tara Oceans expedition samples to assess viral community patterns and structure in the upper ocean. Protein cluster cataloging defined pelagic upper-ocean viral community pan and core gene sets and suggested that this sequence space is well-sampled. Analyses of viral protein clusters, populations, and morphology revealed biogeographic patterns whereby viral communities were passively transported on oceanic currents and locally structured by environmental conditions that affect host community structure. Together, these investigations establish a global ocean dsDNA viromic data set with analyses supporting the seed-bank hypothesis to explain how oceanic viral communities maintain high local diversity. © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved

We thank the commitment of the following people and sponsors: CNRS (in particular Groupement de Recherche GDR3280), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genoscope/CEA, VIB KU Leuven, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, University of Milano- Bicocca, Fund for Scientific Research—Flanders, Rega Institute, KU Leuven, The French Ministry of Research, the French Government “Investissements d’Avenir” programmes OCEANOMICS (ANR-11-BTBR-0008), FRANCE GENOMIQUE (ANR-10-INBS-09-08), MEMO LIFE (ANR-10-LABX-54), Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) Research University (ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02), ANR (projects POSEIDON/ANR-09-BLAN-0348, PHYTBACK/ANR-2010-1709-01, PROMETHEUS/ANR-09-PCS-GENM-217, TARA-GIRUS/ANR-09-PCS-GENM-218), European Union 7th Framework Programme (MicroB3/No.287589, IHMS/HEALTH-F4-2010-261376), European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant award to C.B. (Diatomite: 294823), Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant (3790) to M.B.S., Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant CGL2011-26848/BOS MicroOcean PANGENOMICS to S.G.A., TANIT (CONES 2010-0036) from the Agència de Gestió d´Ajusts Universitaris i Reserca to S.G.A., Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI grant 26430184 to H.O., The Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO), BIO5, Biosphere 2 to M.B.S., and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grants GBMF2631 and GBMF3790 to M.B.S. We also thank the support and commitment of Agnès B. and Etienne Bourgois, the Veolia Environment Foundation, Region Bretagne, Lorient Agglomeration, World Courier, Illumina, the Education for Development Foundation, Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), the Prince Albert II de Monaco Foundation, the Tara schooner and its captains and crew. We thank MERCATOR-CORIOLIS and ACRI-ST for providing daily satellite data during the expedition. We are also grateful to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for supporting the expedition and to the countries who graciously granted sampling permissions. Tara Oceans would not exist without continuous support from 23 institutes (http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org)

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