TY - JOUR
T1 - Genomic Analysis of Uncultured Marine Viral Communities
AU - Breitbart, Mya
AU - Salamon, Peter
AU - Andresen, Bjarne
AU - Mahaffy, Joseph
AU - Segall, Anca
AU - Mead, David
AU - Azam, Farooq
AU - Rohwer, Forest
PY - 2002/1/1
Y1 - 2002/1/1
N2 - Viruses are the most common biological entities in the oceans by an order of magnitude. However, very little is known about their diversity. Here we report a genomic analysis of two uncultured marine viral communities. Over 65% of the sequences were not significantly similar to previously reported sequences, suggesting that much of the diversity is previously uncharacterized. The most common significant hits among the known sequences were to viruses. The viral hits included sequences from all of the major families of dsDNA tailed phages, as well as some algal viruses. Several independent mathematical models based on the observed number of contigs predicted that the most abundant viral genome comprised 2–3% of the total population in both communities, which was estimated to contain between 374 and 7,114 viral types. Overall, diversity of the viral communities was extremely high. The results also showed that it would be possible to sequence the entire genome of an uncultured marine viral community.
AB - Viruses are the most common biological entities in the oceans by an order of magnitude. However, very little is known about their diversity. Here we report a genomic analysis of two uncultured marine viral communities. Over 65% of the sequences were not significantly similar to previously reported sequences, suggesting that much of the diversity is previously uncharacterized. The most common significant hits among the known sequences were to viruses. The viral hits included sequences from all of the major families of dsDNA tailed phages, as well as some algal viruses. Several independent mathematical models based on the observed number of contigs predicted that the most abundant viral genome comprised 2–3% of the total population in both communities, which was estimated to contain between 374 and 7,114 viral types. Overall, diversity of the viral communities was extremely high. The results also showed that it would be possible to sequence the entire genome of an uncultured marine viral community.
UR - https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/799
UR - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.202488399
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.202488399
DO - 10.1073/pnas.202488399
M3 - Article
C2 - 12384570
VL - 99
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy USA
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy USA
ER -