{"id":275,"date":"2015-12-28T02:09:21","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T02:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.99.100:8080\/award\/metagenomic-and-electron-microscopic-investigation-of-viruses-and-viral-infections-of-prokaryotes-in-oceanic-basement-fluids\/"},"modified":"2017-03-15T12:14:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T19:14:11","slug":"metagenomic-and-electron-microscopic-investigation-of-viruses-and-viral-infections-of-prokaryotes-in-oceanic-basement-fluids","status":"publish","type":"award","link":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/award\/metagenomic-and-electron-microscopic-investigation-of-viruses-and-viral-infections-of-prokaryotes-in-oceanic-basement-fluids\/","title":{"rendered":"Metagenomic and electron microscopic investigation of viruses and viral infections of prokaryotes in oceanic basement fluids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The focus of this project was to provide the first enumeration and characterization of viruses in\u00a0oceanic crustal fluids. Samples were collected from CORK observatories 1362A and 1362B\u00a0during an expedition to the Juan de Fuca Ridge Flank. Enumeration of microorganisms by\u00a0epifluorescence microscopy revealed that concentrations of cells and viruses were on the order of\u00a010<sup>4<\/sup> and 10<sup>5<\/sup> ml<sup>-1<\/sup>, respectively. These concentrations are about ten times lower than those in the\u00a0bottom seawater at the CORK location. Electron microscopy of the microbial community\u00a0showed the presence of various viral morphologies, several of which were similar to known\u00a0archaea-infecting viruses in the groups <i>Rudiviridae<\/i>, <i>Fuselloviridae<\/i>, and <i>Globuloviridae<\/i>. The\u00a0morphological evidence for the presence of archaeal viruses was supported by sequence analysis\u00a0of a microbial metagenome (performed in collaboration with C-DEBI researchers). Of the\u00a0identifiable virus hallmark genes mined from the metagenome, 10-40% were most similar to\u00a0known archaea-infecting viruses. The composition of the viral assemblages was more similar to\u00a0terrestrial hot springs than to other marine habitats that have been investigated so far, suggesting\u00a0the importance of elevated temperature on shaping the community and thus the associated viral\u00a0assemblage. The abundance of both viruses and cells in what appeared to be pristine deep\u00a0subsurface fluid samples implies an active role for viruses in the basaltic ocean crust. This means\u00a0that investigation of the multi-faceted symbiotic interactions between cells and viruses will be\u00a0required to fully understand the physiology, ecology, and evolution of the microbial community\u00a0inhabiting the oceanic crust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":[],"award_type":[11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/awards\/275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/awards"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/award"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"award_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.darkenergybiosphere.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/award_type?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}