Spatiotemporal Shift of T4-Like Phage Community Structure in the Three Largest Estuaries of China

Lanlan Cai; Bu Xu; Huifang Li; Yongle Xu; Wei Wei; Rui Zhang

doi:10.1128/spectrum.05203-22

Spatiotemporal Shift of T4-Like Phage Community Structure in the Three Largest Estuaries of China

Microbiol Spectr. 2023 Mar 6;11(2):e0520322. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.05203-22. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Lanlan Cai^{1

2}, Bu Xu^{3

4}, Huifang Li^{1

5}, Yongle Xu⁶, Wei Wei⁷, Rui Zhang^{1

8}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
² Department of Ocean Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
³ School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
⁴ Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Coastal Salt Marsh Ecosystems and Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang, China.
⁶ Institute of Marine Science and Technology, Shandong University, Shandong, China.
⁷ School of Environmental Ecology and Biological Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁸ Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.

Abstract

Estuaries are one of the most highly productive and economically important ecosystems at the continent-ocean interface. Estuary productivity is largely determined by the microbial community structure and activity. Viruses are major agents of microbial mortality and are key drivers of global geochemical cycles. However, the taxonomic diversity of viral communities and their spatial-temporal distribution in estuarine ecosystems have been poorly studied. In this study, we investigated the T4-like viral community composition at three major Chinese estuaries in winter and in summer. Diverse T4-like viruses, which were divided into three main clusters (Clusters I to III), were revealed. The Marine Group of Cluster III, with seven identified subgroups, was the most dominant (averaging 76.5% of the total sequences) in the Chinese estuarine ecosystems. Significant variations of T4-like viral community composition were observed among estuaries and seasons, with higher diversity occurring in winter. Among various environmental variables, temperature was a main driver of the viral communities. This study demonstrates viral assemblage diversification and seasonality in Chinese estuarine ecosystems. IMPORTANCE Viruses are ubiquitous but largely uncharacterized members of aquatic environments that cause significant mortality in microbial communities. Recent large-scale oceanic projects have greatly advanced our understanding of viral ecology in marine environments, but those studies mostly focused on oceanic regions. There have yet to be spatiotemporal studies of viral communities in estuarine ecosystems, which are unique habitats that play a significant role in global ecology and biogeochemistry. This work is the first comprehensive study that provides a detailed picture of the spatial and seasonal variation of viral communities (specifically, T4-like viral communities) in three major estuarine ecosystems in China. These findings provide much-needed knowledge regarding estuarine viral ecosystems, which currently lags in oceanic ecosystem research.

Keywords: Chinese estuary; T4-like bacteriophage; g23; seasonality; viral community.