Hi-C enhanced metagenomes of marine microbial communities in Hood Canal, Washington

Marine microbes play crucial roles in global elemental cycles. Their viruses are also tremendously important in the marine environment; as agents of mortality they structure microbial communities and alter the flow of carbon and other nutrients between dissolved and particulate pathways and as vectors of horizontal gene transfer they impact microbial evolution on long time scales. Here we generated size-fractioned metagenomes and paired Hi-C short reads from a sample below the euphotic zone in Hood Canal, a seasonally hypoxic arm of the Puget Sound estuary, WA, USA. The goal was to use proximity linkages to resolve metagenome assemblies and identify virus-host pairs.