title: The metavirome of a hypersaline environment.
abstract: Hypersaline environments harbour the highest number of virus-like particles reported for planktonic systems. However, very little is known about the genomic diversity of these virus assemblages since most of the knowledge on halophages is based on the analysis of a few isolates infecting strains of hyperhalophilic Archaea that may not be representatives of the natural microbiota. Here, we report the characterization, through a metagenomic approach, of the viral assemblage inhabiting a crystallizer pond (CR30) from a multi-pond solar saltern in Santa Pola (SE Spain). A total of 1.35 Mbp were cloned that yielded a total of 620 kb sequenced viral DNA. The metavirome was highly diverse and different from virus communities of marine and other aquatic environments although it showed some similarities with metaviromes from high-salt ponds in solar salterns in San Diego (SW USA), indicating some common traits between high-salt viromes. A high degree of diversity was found in the halophages as revealed by the presence of 2479 polymorphic nucleotides. Dinucleotide frequency analysis of the CR30 metavirome showed a good correlation with GC content and enabled the establishment of different groups, and even the assignment of their putative hosts: the archaeon Haloquadratum walsbyi and the bacterium Salinibacter ruber.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiología, Genética y Microbiología, Universidad de Alicante, 03080, Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yarza
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parro
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Briones
authors.forename: Josefa
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Antón
mesh_terms: D023641:Archaeal Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D041963:Bacteroidetes / Q000821:virology; D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D044822:Biodiversity; D020451:Contig Mapping; D004279:DNA, Viral; D015226:Dinucleoside Phosphates; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006216:Halobacteriaceae / Q000821:virology; D008242:Lysogeny; D054892:Metagenome; D056186:Metagenomics / Q000379:methods; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D054712:Salinity; D055049:Salt Tolerance; D012623:Seawater / Q000821:virology*; D012965:Sodium Chloride; D013030:Spain; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D015226:Dinucleoside Phosphates; D012965:Sodium Chloride; C015772:CpG dinucleotide