Viral abundance and diversity vary with depth in a southeastern United States agricultural ultisol

In this study, 16S rRNA gene amplicon and virome sequencing were applied to investigate bacterial and viral diversity and provide insight on virus-bacterium interactions in different depths of soil profiles. The results show that bacterial community composition varied with soil depth, driven by an increase in the relative abundance of Chloroflexi and a decline in the relative abundance of Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Actinobacteria, and Acidobacteria. Additionally, landscape position, depth, and virus abundance had the strongest correlation with the bacterial community structure. Virus abundance decreased with soil depth, and bacterial community diversity correlated positively with viral abundance (P < 0.001). Viruses of prokaryotes were most prevalent in the viromes of both surface and subsurface soils relative to the total viruses detected, however the relative abundance of bacteriophages was greater in the subsurface than in the surface soil. Viral abundances showed significant correlations (negative/positive) with many bacterial taxa in soil, suggesting possible ecological interactions between viruses and specific bacterial taxa. Auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs, e.g., genes of oxidative phosphorylation, cell signaling, and nucleotide, amino acids, and carbohydrates metabolisms) were detected in viromes (surface: 2,359 AMGs with 35.7% coding percentage; subsurface: 8,150 AMGs with 87.1% coding percentage). The abundances of AMGs were up to 16-fo...
Source: Soil Biology and Biochemistry - Category: Biology Source Type: research