Data for: Metagenomics show high spatiotemporal virus diversity and ecological compartmentalisation: virus infections of melon, Cucumis melo, crops and adjacent wild communities

Emergence of viral diseases results from novel transmission dynamics between wild and crop plant communities. The bias of studies towards pathogenic viruses of crops has distracted from knowledge of non-antagonistic symbioses in wild plants. Here we implemented a high throughput approach to compare the viromes of melon (Cucumis melo), and wild plants of crop (Crop) and adjacent boundaries (Edge). Each of the 41-plant species examined was infected by at least one virus. The interactions of 104 virus operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with these hosts occurred largely within ecological compartments of either Crop or Edge, Edge having traits of a reservoir community. The positive correlation of virus and plant richness at each site, the tendency for increased specialist host use through seasons, and specialist host use by OTUs observed only in Melon, characterised local-scale patterns of infection. In this study of systematically sampled viromes of crop and adjacent wild communities most h...