title: Metagenomic Characterisation of the Viral Community of Lough Neagh, the Largest Freshwater Lake in Ireland.
abstract: Lough Neagh is the largest and the most economically important lake in Ireland. It is also one of the most nutrient rich amongst the world's major lakes. In this study, 16S rRNA analysis of total metagenomic DNA from the water column of Lough Neagh has revealed a high proportion of Cyanobacteria and low levels of Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Firmicutes. The planktonic virome of Lough Neagh has been sequenced and 2,298,791 2×300 bp Illumina reads analysed. Comparison with previously characterised lakes demonstrates that the Lough Neagh viral community has the highest level of sequence diversity. Only about 15% of reads had homologs in the RefSeq database and tailed bacteriophages (Caudovirales) were identified as a major grouping. Within the Caudovirales, the Podoviridae and Siphoviridae were the two most dominant families (34.3% and 32.8% of the reads with sequence homology to the RefSeq database), while ssDNA bacteriophages constituted less than 1% of the virome. Putative cyanophages were found to be abundant. 66,450 viral contigs were assembled with the largest one being 58,805 bp; its existence, and that of another 34,467 bp contig, in the water column was confirmed. Analysis of the contigs confirmed the high abundance of cyanophages in the water column.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Timofey
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Skvortsov
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de Leeuwe
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Christopher C R
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: McElarney
authors.affiliation: Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ksenia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arkhipova
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Gene Technology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lavigne
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Leonid A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Kulakov
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D044822:Biodiversity; D005068:Eutrophication; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D007494:Ireland; D060106:Lakes / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000821:virology*; D056186:Metagenomics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S