Genomic adaptation of giant viruses in polar oceans

Lingjie Meng, Tom O. Delmont, Morgan Gaïa, Eric Pelletier, Antonio Fernàndez-Guerra, Samuel Chaffron, Russell Y. Neches, Junyi Wu, Hiroto Kaneko, Hisashi Endo and Hiroyuki Ogata ()
Additional contact information
Lingjie Meng: Kyoto University, Gokasho
Tom O. Delmont: Univ Evry, Université Paris-Saclay
Morgan Gaïa: Univ Evry, Université Paris-Saclay
Eric Pelletier: Univ Evry, Université Paris-Saclay
Antonio Fernàndez-Guerra: University of Copenhagen
Samuel Chaffron: FR2022/Tara GOsee
Russell Y. Neches: Kyoto University, Gokasho
Junyi Wu: Kyoto University, Gokasho
Hiroto Kaneko: Kyoto University, Gokasho
Hisashi Endo: Kyoto University, Gokasho
Hiroyuki Ogata: Kyoto University, Gokasho

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Despite being perennially frigid, polar oceans form an ecosystem hosting high and unique biodiversity. Various organisms show different adaptive strategies in this habitat, but how viruses adapt to this environment is largely unknown. Viruses of phyla Nucleocytoviricota and Mirusviricota are groups of eukaryote-infecting large and giant DNA viruses with genomes encoding a variety of functions. Here, by leveraging the Global Ocean Eukaryotic Viral database, we investigate the biogeography and functional repertoire of these viruses at a global scale. We first confirm the existence of an ecological barrier that clearly separates polar and nonpolar viral communities, and then demonstrate that temperature drives dramatic changes in the virus–host network at the polar–nonpolar boundary. Ancestral niche reconstruction suggests that adaptation of these viruses to polar conditions has occurred repeatedly over the course of evolution, with polar-adapted viruses in the modern ocean being scattered across their phylogeny. Numerous viral genes are specifically associated with polar adaptation, although most of their homologues are not identified as polar-adaptive genes in eukaryotes. These results suggest that giant viruses adapt to cold environments by changing their functional repertoire, and this viral evolutionary strategy is distinct from the polar adaptation strategy of their hosts.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41910-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-41910-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41910-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().