title: Dip in the gene pool: metagenomic survey of natural coccolithovirus communities.
abstract: Despite the global oceanic distribution and recognised biogeochemical impact of coccolithoviruses (EhV), their diversity remains poorly understood. Here we employed a metagenomic approach to study the occurrence and progression of natural EhV community genomic variability. Analysis of EhV metagenomes from the early and late stages of an induced bloom led to three main discoveries. First, we observed resilient and specific genomic signatures in the EhV community associated with the Norwegian coast, which reinforce the existence of limitations to the capacity of dispersal and genomic exchange among EhV populations. Second, we identified a hyper-variable region (approximately 21kbp long) in the coccolithovirus genome. Third, we observed a clear trend for EhV relative amino-acid diversity to reduce from early to late stages of the bloom. This study validated two new methodological combinations, and proved very useful in the discovery of new genomic features associated with coccolithovirus natural communities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway. Electronic address: antonio.pagarete@bio.uib.no.
authors.forename: António
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pagarete
authors.affiliation: Computational Biology Unit, University of Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Kanthida
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kusonmano
authors.affiliation: Computational Biology Unit, University of Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Kjell
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.affiliation: Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK.
authors.forename: Susan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kimmance
authors.affiliation: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, USA.
authors.forename: Joaquín
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martínez Martínez
authors.affiliation: Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK; Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, USA.
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
authors.forename: Jan-Hendrik
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Hehemann
authors.affiliation: Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Ruth-Anne
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Sandaa
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D054892:Metagenome; D056186:Metagenomics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017862:Phycodnaviridae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012623:Seawater / Q000821:virology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity; D058009:Stramenopiles / Q000821:virology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins
keywords: Algae virus; Bloom dynamics; Coccolithovirus; EhV; Emiliania huxleyi; Emiliania huxleyi virus; Genomic hyper-variable region; Giant virus; Marine metagenomics; Metagenome; Viral genomic diversity; Virome