#Cytoscape viral drivers

This agrees with the elevated microbial activity at cold seeps driven by the availability of energy-rich substrates supplied from below. Epifluorescence microscopy of sediments from the Gulf of Mexico revealed that viral-like particle counts and virus-to-prokaryote ratios at cold seeps were significantly higher than in surrounding sediments, suggesting that these habitats may be hot spots for viruses.

Viruses have also been observed in cold seep sediments. These microbial populations are not only highly active in influencing seep biogeochemistry at the sediment-water interface, but also contribute to a variety of biological processes such as sulfate reduction, sulfur oxidation, denitrification, metal reduction and methanogenesis within the seabed. Understanding biogeochemical cycling in marine sediments associated with cold seeps is thus important for meeting critical energy and climate challenges.Ĭold seeps are chemosynthetic ecosystems and contain an extensive diversity of archaea and bacteria which play important roles in hydrocarbon metabolism. In the context of global climate change, methane and other short-chain alkanes escaping from deep sea cold seep sediments can reach the atmosphere, exacerbating the greenhouse effect. Seep fluids can be produced through biological processes (methanogenesis in shallow sediments) or derive from thermogenic oil and gas systems that have been present for long periods of time in more deeply buried strata. Marine cold seeps are typically found at the edges of continental shelves and feature mainly gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons from deep geologic sources. Overall, these findings reveal the global diversity and biogeography of cold seep viruses and indicate how viruses may manipulate seep microbial ecology and biogeochemistry. Metabolic predictions of prokaryotic host genomes and viral AMGs suggest that viruses influence microbial hydrocarbon biodegradation at cold seeps, as well as other carbon, sulfur and nitrogen cycling via virus-induced mortality and/or metabolic augmentation. Lysis was predicted to be a predominant viral lifestyle based on lineage-specific virus/host abundance ratios. In silico predictions linked 14.2% of the viruses to microbial host populations with many belonging to poorly understood candidate bacterial and archaeal phyla.

#Cytoscape viral drivers

Most cold seep viruses display high degrees of endemism with seep fluid flux being one of the main drivers of viral community composition. Gene-sharing network comparisons with viruses inhabiting other ecosystems reveal that cold seep sediments harbour considerable unexplored viral diversity. Here, we probed metagenomes from seven geographically diverse cold seeps across global oceans to assess viral diversity, virus–host interaction, and virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs). Deep sea sediments associated with cold seeps are known to host taxonomically diverse microbial communities, but little is known about viruses infecting these microorganisms. In marine ecosystems, viruses exert control on the composition and metabolism of microbial communities, influencing overall biogeochemical cycling.