Ecological interactions between marine RNA viruses and planktonic copepods

The interactions between planktonic copepods and viruses have been overlooked despite their crucial roles in marine ecosystems. In this project, we focused on the copepod Pseudocalanus newmani in the Okhotsk Sea and investigated the ecological roles of their viruses. We obtained rRNA-depleted transcriptome data, and major viruses in copepods were detected. After studying the population dynamics of copepods and viruses, we also obtained poly(A)-selected transcriptome to investigate the gene expression of copepods with high viral copies. Additionally, metabarcoding analysis was carried out to reveal eukaryotic parasites and prey sources of copepods to evaluate other factors influencing on copepod abundance and physiology.