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 hosts showed no disease symptoms,
suggesting non-antagonistic symbioses are common. The coexistence of
viruses within species-rich ecological compartments of agro-systems might
promote the evolution of a diversity of virus strategies for survival and
transmission. These communities, including those suspected as reservoirs,
are subject to sporadic changes in assemblages, and so too are the
conditions that favour the emergence of disease.