Active prokaryotic and eukaryotic viral ecology across spatial scale in a deep-sea brine pool
Deep-sea brine pools represent rare, extreme environments that focus biodiversity at bathyal to abyssal depths. Despite their small size and distribution, brine pools represent important ecosystems to study because they provide unique insight into the limits of life on Earth, and by analogy, the plausibility of life beyond it. A distinguishing feature of many brine pools is the presence of thick benthic microbial mats which develop at the brine-seawater interface. While these bacterial and archaeal communities have received moderate attention, little is known about the viral communities and their interactions with host populations in these environments. To bridge this knowledge gap, we leveraged metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data from three distinct zones within the NEOM brine pool system (Gulf of Aqaba) to gain insights into the active viral ecology around the pools. Here, we report a remarkable diversity and activity of viruses of all nucleic acid types and genome sizes that infect prokaryotic and eukaryotic hosts in this environment.