Eukaryotic virus composition can predict the efficiency of carbon export in the global ocean
Hiroto Kaneko,
Romain Blanc-Mathieu,
Hisashi Endo,
Samuel Chaffron,
Tom O. Delmont,
Morgan Gaia,
Nicolas Henry,
Rodrigo Hernández-Velázquez,
Canh Hao Nguyen,
Hiroshi Mamitsuka,
Patrick Forterre,
Olivier Jaillon,
Colomban de Vargas,
Matthew B. Sullivan,
Curtis A. Suttle,
Lionel Guidi,
Hiroyuki Ogata
Affiliations
Hiroto Kaneko
Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
Romain Blanc-Mathieu
Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan; Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire & Végétale, CEA, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, INRA, IRIG, Grenoble, France
Hisashi Endo
Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
Samuel Chaffron
Université de Nantes, CNRS UMR 6004, LS2N, 44000 Nantes, France; Research Federation (FR2022) Tara Oceans GO-SEE, Paris, France
Tom O. Delmont
Research Federation (FR2022) Tara Oceans GO-SEE, Paris, France; Génomique Métabolique, Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, 91000 Evry, France
Morgan Gaia
Research Federation (FR2022) Tara Oceans GO-SEE, Paris, France; Génomique Métabolique, Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, 91000 Evry, France
Nicolas Henry
Sorbonne Universités, CNRS, Laboratoire Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin, Station Biologique de Roscoff, 29680 Roscoff, France
Rodrigo Hernández-Velázquez
Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
Canh Hao Nguyen
Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
Hiroshi Mamitsuka
Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
Patrick Forterre
Institut Pasteur, Department of Microbiology, 25 rue du Docteur Roux, 75015, Paris, France
Olivier Jaillon
Research Federation (FR2022) Tara Oceans GO-SEE, Paris, France; Génomique Métabolique, Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, 91000 Evry, France
Colomban de Vargas
Sorbonne Universités, CNRS, Laboratoire Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin, Station Biologique de Roscoff, 29680 Roscoff, France
Matthew B. Sullivan
Department of Microbiology and Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States of America
Curtis A. Suttle
Departments of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Microbiology & Immunology, and Botany, and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
Lionel Guidi
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefanche, LOV, 06230 Villefranche-sur-mer, France
Hiroyuki Ogata
Bioinformatics Center, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan; Corresponding author
Summary: The biological carbon pump, in which carbon fixed by photosynthesis is exported to the deep ocean through sinking, is a major process in Earth's carbon cycle. The proportion of primary production that is exported is termed the carbon export efficiency (CEE). Based on in-lab or regional scale observations, viruses were previously suggested to affect the CEE (i.e., viral “shunt” and “shuttle”). In this study, we tested associations between viral community composition and CEE measured at a global scale. A regression model based on relative abundance of viral marker genes explained 67% of the variation in CEE. Viruses with high importance in the model were predicted to infect ecologically important hosts. These results are consistent with the view that the viral shunt and shuttle functions at a large scale and further imply that viruses likely act in this process in a way dependent on their hosts and ecosystem dynamics.
