Publication
Lytic archaeal viruses infect abundant primary producers in Earth’s crust
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:
30-07-2021
DOI:
10.1038/S41467-021-24803-4
Abstract: The continental subsurface houses a major portion of life’s abundance and ersity, yet little is known about viruses infecting microbes that reside there. Here, we use a combination of metagenomics and virus-targeted direct-geneFISH (virusFISH) to show that highly abundant carbon-fixing organisms of the uncultivated genus Candidatus Altiarchaeum are frequent targets of previously unrecognized viruses in the deep subsurface. Analysis of CRISPR spacer matches display resistances of Ca . Altiarchaea against eight predicted viral clades, which show genomic relatedness across continents but little similarity to previously identified viruses. Based on metagenomic information, we tag and image a putatively viral genome rich in protospacers using fluorescence microscopy. VirusFISH reveals a lytic lifestyle of the respective virus and challenges previous predictions that lysogeny prevails as the dominant viral lifestyle in the subsurface. CRISPR development over time and imaging of 18 s les from one subsurface ecosystem suggest a sophisticated interplay of viral ersification and adapting CRISPR-mediated resistances of Ca . Altiarchaeum. We conclude that infections of primary producers with lytic viruses followed by cell lysis potentially jump-start heterotrophic carbon cycling in these subsurface ecosystems.