Using CRISPRs as a metagenomic tool to identify microbial hosts of a diffuse flow hydrothermal vent viral assemblage

Metagenomic analyses of viruses have revealed widespread diversity in the viriosphere, but it remains a challenge to identify specific hosts for a viral assemblage. To address this problem, we analyze the viral metagenome of a northeast Pacific hydrothermal vent with a comprehensive database of spacers derived from the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat) putative immune system. CRISPR spacer matches to the marine vent virome suggest that viruses infecting hosts from diverse taxonomic groups are present in this vent environment. Comparative virome analyses show that CRISPR spacers from vent isolates and from thermophiles in general have a higher percentage of matches to the vent virome than to other marine or terrestrial hot spring viromes. However, a high percentage of hits to spacers from mesophilic hosts, combined with a moderately high modeled alpha diversity, suggest that the marine vent virome is comprised of viruses that have the potential to infect d...

病毒宏基因组学分析已揭示病毒圈（viriosphere）存在广泛的多样性，但目前仍难以确定病毒群落的具体宿主。为解决这一研究难题，本研究结合源自CRISPR（成簇规律间隔短回文重复序列，Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat）推定免疫系统的间隔序列综合数据库，对东北太平洋热液喷口的病毒宏基因组展开分析。针对该海洋喷口病毒组的CRISPR间隔序列匹配结果显示，本喷口环境中存在可感染不同分类群宿主的病毒。比较病毒组分析结果表明，相较于其他海洋或陆地热泉病毒组，来自喷口分离株以及一般嗜热微生物的CRISPR间隔序列，与本喷口病毒组的匹配率更高。然而，与嗜温宿主间隔序列的高匹配率，加之模拟得到的中等偏高的α多样性（alpha diversity），表明该海洋喷口病毒组由具有感染……潜力的病毒构成。