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Roles of viruses in the environment

Roles of viruses in the environment Viruses are important microbial predators that influence global biogeochemical cycles and drive microbial evolution, although their impact is often under appreciated. Viruses reproduce after attaching and transferring their genetic material into a host cell. The host's cellular machinery is then redirected to the making of more viruses and results in the death of the host cell in the vast majority of cases. Viruses have developed intriguing mechanisms to utilize host proteins for their own defence and for shifting metabolism from host to virus, a topic that is reviewed for bacterial viruses in this special issue of Environmental Microbiology ( Roucourt and Lavigne, 2009 ). Globally, there are an estimated 1e31 virus‐like particles. Currently, it is thought that most of the viruses are phages that infect bacteria, but archaeal and eukaryotic viruses are certainly important components of most ecosystems. Since the average half‐life of free viruses in most ecosystems is ∼48 h, an estimated 1e27 viruses are produced every minute. This means that roughly 1e25 microbes, or about 100 million metric tons, die every 60 s due to viruses. Viral predation, in combination with protist grazing, is able to maintain microbial numbers at values less then the carrying capacity http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Environmental Microbiology Wiley

Roles of viruses in the environment

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References (44)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2009 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing Ltd
ISSN
1462-2912
eISSN
1462-2920
DOI
10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.02101.x
pmid
19878268
Publisher site
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Abstract

Viruses are important microbial predators that influence global biogeochemical cycles and drive microbial evolution, although their impact is often under appreciated. Viruses reproduce after attaching and transferring their genetic material into a host cell. The host's cellular machinery is then redirected to the making of more viruses and results in the death of the host cell in the vast majority of cases. Viruses have developed intriguing mechanisms to utilize host proteins for their own defence and for shifting metabolism from host to virus, a topic that is reviewed for bacterial viruses in this special issue of Environmental Microbiology ( Roucourt and Lavigne, 2009 ). Globally, there are an estimated 1e31 virus‐like particles. Currently, it is thought that most of the viruses are phages that infect bacteria, but archaeal and eukaryotic viruses are certainly important components of most ecosystems. Since the average half‐life of free viruses in most ecosystems is ∼48 h, an estimated 1e27 viruses are produced every minute. This means that roughly 1e25 microbes, or about 100 million metric tons, die every 60 s due to viruses. Viral predation, in combination with protist grazing, is able to maintain microbial numbers at values less then the carrying capacity

Journal

Environmental Microbiology – Wiley

Published: Nov 1, 2009

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