Randomized trial investigates how viral infections affect bacterial activity in meromictic lakes, highlighting implications for sulfur cycling.
Key Points
The aim is to understand how viral infections influence the relationship between abundance and activity of sulfur-cycling bacteria in meromictic lakes.
Integrated metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metaHi-C virus-host linkages in three meromictic lakes.
Analyzed the geochemical profiles of the lakes alongside microbial community dynamics.
Compared transcriptional activity and abundance of purple and green sulfur bacteria.
PSB activity constituted 73% of the total microbial community activity, while their abundance was only 30%.
GSBs displayed a higher abundance compared to activity, indicating an opposite trend.
PSBs were associated with temperate viruses while GSBs were harmed by lytic infections, revealing different viral effects on sulfur bacteria.