Discovery of Novel Bacteriophage Species and Functional Traits in a Forest Soil Warming Experiment

Presenter

Jared Gracia-David

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Jeffrey Blanchard, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 4, 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A32, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 2 (A21-A40) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

The earth’s climate is a complex system influenced by countless biotic and abiotic factors. Of primary importance is the carbon cycle, in which microorganisms are known to play a large part. One particularly understudied yet important part of microbial communities is the virus. Viruses are known to be major players globally in diverse environments. Bacteriophages (phages) in particular play a key role via their manipulation of bacterial communities. Phages affect the size and composition of microbial communities through infection and lysis of their bacterial hosts and shape the evolutionary trajectories of bacterial populations via horizontal gene transfer and other processes. However, it is currently unknown the role phages play in nutrient cycling in soil environments. It is also unknown how rising temperatures (such as those associated with climate change) may affect the presence and activity of ecologically relevant phages and their hosts. Here, metagenomic analysis of soil microbial communities reveals viral auxiliary metabolic genes including several glycoside hydrolases, cellulose synthase, and a flagellar assembly protein. Additionally, this study reveals that long-term warming does affect phage communities: out of 679 viral species detected, 17 were differentially abundant between warmed and control soil plots. These 679 species were assigned to 164 higher-level taxonomic groups via protein clustering, only 10 of which contain previously identified genomes. These results demonstrate the extent of unexplored viral sequence space and the potential for the continued discovery of novel viral groups and metabolic functions.

Keywords

Microbes, Ecology, Genomics, Bacteriophage, Metabolism

Research Area

Biological Organisms

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