title: Metagenomic analysis of lacustrine viral diversity along a latitudinal transect of the Antarctic Peninsula.
abstract: Environmental viruses constitute the most abundant biological entities on earth, and harbor an enormous genetic diversity. While their strong influence on the ecosystem is widely acknowledged, current knowledge about their diversity and distribution remains limited. Here we present the metagenomic study of viral communities from freshwater bodies located along a transect of the Antarctic Peninsula. These ecosystems were chosen on the basis of environmental and biogeographical variation. The results obtained indicate that the virus assemblages were diverse, and that the larger fraction represented viruses with no close relatives in the databases. Comparisons to existing metaviromes showed that the communities studied were dissimilar to other freshwater viromes including those from the Arctic. Finally, we observed no indication of there being a reduction in either viral richness or diversity estimates with increasing latitude along the studied transect, further adding to the controversy regarding the possible existence of latitudinal gradients of diversity in the microbial world.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aguirre de Cárcer
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: López-Bueno
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Alonso-Lobo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quesada
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain aalcami@cbm.csic.es.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alcamí
mesh_terms: D000864:Antarctic Regions; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000821:virology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D056186:Metagenomics / Q000379:methods; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Antarctic Peninsula; lacustrine environments; latitudinal gradient; metagenomics; ssDNA viruses; viruses