Elements of a theory for the mechanisms controlling abundance, diversity, and biogeochemical role of lytic bacterial viruses in aquatic systems

Thingstad, T. Frede

doi:10.4319/lo.2000.45.6.1320

Cited by 822 publications

(769 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Viruses of microbes have been linked to central processes across the global oceans, including biogeochemical cycling [9,29,39,43,47,53] and the maintenance and generation of microbial diversity [3, 36,39,47,52]. Virus propagation requires contacting and infecting cells.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Re-examination of the relationship between marine virus and microbial cell abundances

et al. 2016

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Marine viruses are critical drivers of ocean biogeochemistry and their abundances vary spatiotemporally in the global oceans, with upper estimates exceeding 10 8 per ml. Over many years, a consensus has emerged that virus abundances are typically 10-fold higher than prokaryote abundances. The use of a fixed-ratio suggests that the relationship between virus and prokaryote abundances is both predictable and linear. However, the true explanatory power of a linear relationship and its robustness across diverse ocean environments is unclear. Here, we compile 5671 prokaryote and virus abundance estimates from 25 distinct marine surveys to characterize the relationship between virus and prokaryote abundances. We find that the median virus-to-prokaryote ratio (VPR) is 10:1 and 16:1 in the near-and sub-surface oceans, respectively. Nonetheless, we observe substantial variation in the VPR and find either no or limited explanatory power using fixed-ratio models. Instead, virus abundances are better described as nonlinear, power-law functions of prokaryote abundances -particularly when considering relationships within distinct marine surveys. Estimated power-laws have scaling exponents that are typically less than 1, signifying that the VPR decreases with prokaryote density, rather than remaining fixed. The emergence of power-law scaling presents a challenge for mechanistic models seeking to understand the ecological causes and consequences of marine virusmicrobe interactions. Such power-law scaling also implies that efforts to average viral effects on microbial mortality and biogeochemical cycles using "representative" abundances or abundanceratios need to be refined if they are to be utilized to make quantitative predictions at regional or global ocean scales.

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confidence: 99%

“…Thingstad [47] 2004 Consistency in VBR is attributed to the idea that most viruses are phage that infect bacteria. Notes a VBR of 10 in marine systems and attributes to Maranger and Bird [31].…”

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confidence: 99%

Re-examination of the relationship between marine virus and microbial cell abundances

et al. 2016

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“…4). In accordance with the 'Kill-the-Winner' 387 (KtW) model of host-pathogen relationships (Thingstad, 2000), the dynamics of bacteria and 388 their viruses are co-dependent, and the peak of abundance of a virus should appear with some 389 Winner (PtW) model, in accordance with which 'temperateness is favoured at high host 416 densities as viruses exploit their hosts through lysogeny rather than killing them' (Knowles et 417 al, 2016). We might expect that the dynamic pattern identified could be a result of phage-host 418 interactions in accordance with this PtW model.…”

Section: Found 376mentioning

confidence: 96%

Temporal dynamics of uncultured viruses: a new dimension in viral diversity

et al. 2017

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Recent work has vastly expanded the known viral genomic sequence space, but the seasonal dynamics of viral populations at the genome level remain unexplored. Here we followed the viral community in a freshwater lake for 1 year using genome-resolved viral metagenomics, combined with detailed analyses of the viral community structure, associated bacterial populations and environmental variables. We reconstructed 8950 complete and partial viral genomes, the majority of which were not persistent in the lake throughout the year, but instead continuously succeeded each other. Temporal analysis of 732 viral genus-level clusters demonstrated that one-fifth were undetectable at specific periods of the year. Based on host predictions for a subset of reconstructed viral genomes, we for the first time reveal three distinct patterns of host–pathogen dynamics, where the viruses may peak before, during or after the peak in their host’s abundance, providing new possibilities for modelling of their interactions. Time series metagenomics opens up a new dimension in viral profiling, which is essential to understand the full scale of viral diversity and evolution, and the ecological roles of these important factors in the global ecosystem.

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“…Initial attempts at modeling the role of viruses in bacterial mortality relied on model-based interpretation of the percentage of bacteria diverted to DOM (Noble and Fuhrman, 1999;Thingstad, 2000). These models, however, were conceptual in nature, and with statistical quantifications of the budgets, and not like the dynamic process-oriented models used currently in marine biogeochemical models.…”

Section: Initial Modeling Approaches To Viral Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies reaffirm that the mortality from viral activity must be considered in studies of bacterioplankton processes (Ory et al, 2010;Magiopoulos and Pitta, 2012), a fact long known, but still not fully realized by marine modelers. Back in 2000 it was stated that our understanding of the planktonic food was incomplete without an hypothesis for the underlying mechanisms controlling viral abundance (Thingstad, 2000). To that, one can add that our numerical models need to include viral activity if we aspire to use them to understand and estimate the balance of energy and matter in marine systems.…”

Section: The Inclusion Of Viruses In Marine Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the Gap between Knowing and Modeling Viruses in Marine Systems—An Upcoming Frontier

Mateus

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Viruses are the most abundant biological entities in the world's oceans. Their potential control on the dynamics and diversity of bacterioplankton and some phytoplankton groups, and consequent effect on the flow of energy and matter in food webs, may be argued as beyond dispute. Paradoxically, their importance seems to be persistently underestimated by marine modelers, frequently by exclusion, despite the uninterrupted volume of knowledge advanced during the past decades. Bridging the gap between knowing and modeling the role of viruses is, undoubtedly, one of the upcoming frontiers to be crossed in modeling the plankton. This paper has a two-fold objective: (1) review the knowledge on the roles of viruses in marine systems that has been put forward over the past decades, and (2) see how viruses have been incorporated into marine ecosystem models, along with the factors that are limiting their inclusion.

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Elements of a theory for the mechanisms controlling abundance, diversity, and biogeochemical role of lytic bacterial viruses in aquatic systems

Cited by 822 publications

References 30 publications

Re-examination of the relationship between marine virus and microbial cell abundances

Re-examination of the relationship between marine virus and microbial cell abundances

Temporal dynamics of uncultured viruses: a new dimension in viral diversity

Bridging the Gap between Knowing and Modeling Viruses in Marine Systems—An Upcoming Frontier

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