Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 23 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5781, pp. 1795 - 1798
DOI: 10.1126/science.1127404
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Metagenomic Analysis of Coastal RNA Virus Communities

Alexander I. Culley,1 Andrew S. Lang,2 Curtis A. Suttle3*

RNA viruses infect marine organisms from bacteria to whales, but RNA virus communities in the sea remain essentially unknown. Reverse-transcribed whole-genome shotgun sequencing was used to characterize the diversity of uncultivated marine RNA virus assemblages. A diverse assemblage of RNA viruses, including a broad group of marine picorna-like viruses, and distant relatives of viruses infecting arthropods and higher plants were found. Communities were dominated by distinct genotypes with small genome sizes, and we completely assembled the genomes of several hitherto undiscovered viruses. Our results show that the oceans are a reservoir of previously unknown RNA viruses.

1 Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, 3529-6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
2 Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 905 North Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA.
3 Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, 1461-6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: csuttle{at}eos.ubc.ca

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Discovery of a Novel Single-Stranded DNA Virus from a Sea Turtle Fibropapilloma by Using Viral Metagenomics.
T. F. F. Ng, C. Manire, K. Borrowman, T. Langer, L. Ehrhart, and M. Breitbart (2009)
J. Virol. 83, 2500-2509
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Bioinformatician's Guide to Metagenomics.
V. Kunin, A. Copeland, A. Lapidus, K. Mavromatis, and P. Hugenholtz (2008)
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 72, 557-578
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Amplification of Uncultured Single-Stranded DNA Viruses from Rice Paddy Soil.
K.-H. Kim, H.-W. Chang, Y.-D. Nam, S. W. Roh, M.-S. Kim, Y. Sung, C. O. Jeon, H.-M. Oh, and J.-W. Bae (2008)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 74, 5975-5985
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Furtive foes: algal viruses as potential invaders.
J. E. Lawrence (2008)
ICES J. Mar. Sci. 65, 716-722
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Diverse Responses of the Bivalve-Killing Dinoflagellate Heterocapsa circularisquama to Infection by a Single-Stranded RNA Virus.
H. Mizumoto, Y. Tomaru, Y. Takao, Y. Shirai, and K. Nagasaki (2008)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 74, 3105-3111
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Highly Divergent Picornavirus in a Marine Mammal.
A. Kapoor, J. Victoria, P. Simmonds, C. Wang, R. W. Shafer, R. Nims, O. Nielsen, and E. Delwart (2008)
J. Virol. 82, 311-320
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
New Genera of RNA Viruses in Subtropical Seawater, Inferred from Polymerase Gene Sequences.
A. I. Culley and G. F. Steward (2007)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 73, 5937-5944
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Advanced sequencing technologies and their wider impact in microbiology.
N. Hall (2007)
J. Exp. Biol. 210, 1518-1525
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Intraspecies Host Specificity of a Single-Stranded RNA Virus Infecting a Marine Photosynthetic Protist Is Determined at the Early Steps of Infection.
H. Mizumoto, Y. Tomaru, Y. Takao, Y. Shirai, and K. Nagasaki (2007)
J. Virol. 81, 1372-1378
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genome Information Broker for Viruses (GIB-V): database for comparative analysis of virus genomes.
M. Hirahata, T. Abe, N. Tanaka, Y. Kuwana, Y. Shigemoto, S. Miyazaki, Y. Suzuki, and H. Sugawara (2007)
Nucleic Acids Res. 35, D339-D342
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)