Metagenomic analysis of coastal RNA virus communities. uncultured marine RNA virus

RNA viruses infect marine organisms from bacteria to whales, but RNA virus communities in the sea remain essentially unknown. Reverse-transcribed whole-genome shotgun sequencing was used to characterize the diversity of uncultivated marine RNA virus assemblages. A diverse assemblage of RNA viruses, including a broad group of marine picorna-like viruses, and distant relatives of viruses infecting arthropods and higher plants were found. Communities were dominated by distinct genotypes with small genome sizes, and complete assembly of genomes of several hitherto undiscovered viruses was obtained. These results show that the oceans are a reservoir of previously unknown RNA viruses. DX420985-DX421142 and DQ439712-DQ439732 correspond to genome survey sequences (GSS) and contigs derived from this study.