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Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions

Stony corals (Scleractinia) are marine invertebrates that form the foundation and framework upon which tropical reefs are built. The coral animal associates with a diverse microbiome comprised of dinoflagellate algae and other protists, bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses. Using a metagenomics appr...

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Autores principales: Weynberg, Karen D., Laffy, Patrick W., Wood-Charlson, Elisha M., Turaev, Dmitrij, Rattei, Thomas, Webster, Nicole S., van Oppen, Madeleine J.H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5695250/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29158985
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4054
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author Weynberg, Karen D.
Laffy, Patrick W.
Wood-Charlson, Elisha M.
Turaev, Dmitrij
Rattei, Thomas
Webster, Nicole S.
van Oppen, Madeleine J.H.
author_facet Weynberg, Karen D.
Laffy, Patrick W.
Wood-Charlson, Elisha M.
Turaev, Dmitrij
Rattei, Thomas
Webster, Nicole S.
van Oppen, Madeleine J.H.
author_sort Weynberg, Karen D.
collection PubMed
description Stony corals (Scleractinia) are marine invertebrates that form the foundation and framework upon which tropical reefs are built. The coral animal associates with a diverse microbiome comprised of dinoflagellate algae and other protists, bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses. Using a metagenomics approach, we analysed the DNA and RNA viral assemblages of seven coral species from the central Great Barrier Reef (GBR), demonstrating that tailed bacteriophages of the Caudovirales dominate across all species examined, and ssDNA viruses, notably the Microviridae, are also prevalent. Most sequences with matches to eukaryotic viruses were assigned to six viral families, including four Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses (NCLDVs) families: Iridoviridae, Phycodnaviridae, Mimiviridae, and Poxviridae, as well as Retroviridae and Polydnaviridae. Contrary to previous findings, Herpesvirales were rare in these GBR corals. Sequences of a ssRNA virus with similarities to the dinornavirus, Heterocapsa circularisquama ssRNA virus of the Alvernaviridae that infects free-living dinoflagellates, were observed in three coral species. We also detected viruses previously undescribed from the coral holobiont, including a virus that targets fungi associated with the coral species Acropora tenuis. Functional analysis of the assembled contigs indicated a high prevalence of latency-associated genes in the coral-associated viral assemblages, several host-derived auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) for photosynthesis (psbA, psbD genes encoding the photosystem II D1 and D2 proteins respectively), as well as potential nematocyst toxins and antioxidants (genes encoding green fluorescent-like chromoprotein). This study expands the currently limited knowledge on coral-associated viruses by characterising viral composition and function across seven GBR coral species.
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spelling pubmed-56952502017-11-20 Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions Weynberg, Karen D. Laffy, Patrick W. Wood-Charlson, Elisha M. Turaev, Dmitrij Rattei, Thomas Webster, Nicole S. van Oppen, Madeleine J.H. PeerJ Genomics Stony corals (Scleractinia) are marine invertebrates that form the foundation and framework upon which tropical reefs are built. The coral animal associates with a diverse microbiome comprised of dinoflagellate algae and other protists, bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses. Using a metagenomics approach, we analysed the DNA and RNA viral assemblages of seven coral species from the central Great Barrier Reef (GBR), demonstrating that tailed bacteriophages of the Caudovirales dominate across all species examined, and ssDNA viruses, notably the Microviridae, are also prevalent. Most sequences with matches to eukaryotic viruses were assigned to six viral families, including four Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses (NCLDVs) families: Iridoviridae, Phycodnaviridae, Mimiviridae, and Poxviridae, as well as Retroviridae and Polydnaviridae. Contrary to previous findings, Herpesvirales were rare in these GBR corals. Sequences of a ssRNA virus with similarities to the dinornavirus, Heterocapsa circularisquama ssRNA virus of the Alvernaviridae that infects free-living dinoflagellates, were observed in three coral species. We also detected viruses previously undescribed from the coral holobiont, including a virus that targets fungi associated with the coral species Acropora tenuis. Functional analysis of the assembled contigs indicated a high prevalence of latency-associated genes in the coral-associated viral assemblages, several host-derived auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) for photosynthesis (psbA, psbD genes encoding the photosystem II D1 and D2 proteins respectively), as well as potential nematocyst toxins and antioxidants (genes encoding green fluorescent-like chromoprotein). This study expands the currently limited knowledge on coral-associated viruses by characterising viral composition and function across seven GBR coral species. PeerJ Inc. 2017-11-17 /pmc/articles/PMC5695250/ /pubmed/29158985 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4054 Text en ©2017 Weynberg et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Genomics
Weynberg, Karen D.
Laffy, Patrick W.
Wood-Charlson, Elisha M.
Turaev, Dmitrij
Rattei, Thomas
Webster, Nicole S.
van Oppen, Madeleine J.H.
Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions
title Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions
title_full Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions
title_fullStr Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions
title_full_unstemmed Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions
title_short Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions
title_sort coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions
topic Genomics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5695250/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29158985
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4054
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