Lake Baikal Metagenomes obtained from epipelagic, mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones in winter and summer.. Lake Baikal Metagenomes

Lake Baikal is the largest body of liquid freshwater on Earth. Previous studies have described the microbial composition of this habitat but the viral communities from this ecosystem have not been characterized in detail. Here we describe the viral diversity of this habitat across depth and seasonal gradients. We discovered 19,475 bona fide viral sequences, which are derived from viruses predicted to infect abundant and ecologically important taxa that reside in lake Baikal, such as Nitrospirota, Methylophilaceae and Crenarchaeota. Diversity analysis revealed significant changes in viral community composition between epipelagic and bathypelagic zones.