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Science 6 November 2009:
Vol. 326. no. 5954, pp. 858 - 861
DOI: 10.1126/science.1179287
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Reports

High Diversity of the Viral Community from an Antarctic Lake

Alberto López-Bueno,1 Javier Tamames,2,3,4 David Velázquez,5 Andrés Moya,2,3,4 Antonio Quesada,5 Antonio Alcamí1,6,*

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities and can control microbial communities, but their identity in terrestrial and freshwater Antarctic ecosystems is unknown. The genetic structure of an Antarctic lake viral community revealed unexpected genetic richness distributed across the highest number of viral families that have been found to date in aquatic viral metagenomes. In contrast to other known aquatic viromes, which are dominated by bacteriophage sequences, this Antarctic virus assemblage had a large proportion of sequences related to eukaryotic viruses, including phycodnaviruses and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) viruses not previously identified in aquatic environments. We also observed that the transition from an ice-covered lake in spring to an open-water lake in summer led to a change from a ssDNA– to a double-stranded DNA–virus-dominated assemblage, possibly reflecting a seasonal shift in host organisms.

1 Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)–Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
2 Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Universitat de València, València, Spain.
3 Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública, Consellería de Sanidad, Generalitat Valenciana, València, Spain.
4 Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Barcelona, Spain.
5 Departamento de Biología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
6 Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: aalcami{at}cbm.uam.es

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L. Li, A. Kapoor, B. Slikas, O. S. Bamidele, C. Wang, S. Shaukat, M. A. Masroor, M. L. Wilson, J.-B. N. Ndjango, M. Peeters, et al. (2010)
J. Virol. 84, 1674-1682
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