The Impact of Viral Infection on the Chemistries of the Earth’s Most Abundant Photosynthesizes: Metabolically Talented Aquatic Cyanobacteria

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are the most abundant photosynthesizers on earth, and as such, they play a central role in marine metabolite generation, ocean nutrient cycling, and the control of planetary oxygen generation. Cyanobacteriophage infection exerts control on all of these critical processes of the planet, with the phage-ported homologs of genes linked to photosynthesis, catabolism, and secondary metabolism (marine metabolite generation). Here, we analyze the 153 fully sequenced cyanophages from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database and the 45 auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) that they deliver into their hosts. Most of these AMGs are homologs of those found within cyanobacteria and play a key role in cyanobacterial metabolism-encoding proteins involved in photosynthesis, central carbon metabolism, phosphate metabolism, methylation, and cellular regulation. A greater understanding of cyanobacteriophage infection will pave the way to a better understanding of carbon fixation and nutrient cycling, as well as provide new tools for synthetic biology and alternative approaches for the use of cyanobacteria in biotechnology and sustainable manufacturing.

A novel long-tailed myovirus represents a new T4-like cyanophage cluster

“…Among the three groups of cyanophages, cyanomyoviruses are the most frequently isolated, with the T4-like as the dominant member (Wang et al, 2023). It is estimated that T4-like cyanomyoviruses are the most abundant and widely distributed cyanophages in marine environments (Mann and Clokie, 2012;Huang et al, 2015).…”

“…It is estimated that T4-like cyanomyoviruses are the most abundant and widely distributed cyanophages in marine environments (Mann and Clokie, 2012;Huang et al, 2015). About 106 T4-like cyanophage genomes have been sequenced (Jiang et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2023) and are found possessing a collection of core genes associated with DNA replication and structure forming (Sullivan et al, 2010). Marine T4-like cyanophage isolates were previously classified into two lineages, namely clusters A and B, based on phylogenetic analysis of the core genes (Ignacio-Espinoza and Sullivan, 2012).…”