Data and metadata from: Large dsDNA viruses tend to suppress phytoplankton populations more effectively than small viruses of diverse genome type

Viruses infecting aquatic microbes vary immensely in size, but the ecological consequences of virus size are poorly understood. Here we used a unique suite of diverse phytoplankton strains and their viruses, all isolated from waters around Hawaiʻi, to assess whether virus size affects the suppression of host populations. We found that small viruses of diverse genome type (3–24 kb genome size, 23–70 nm capsid diameter) have very similar effects on host populations, suppressing hosts less strongly and for a shorter period of time compared to large dsDNA viruses (214–1380 kb, 112–386 nm). Suppressive effects of larger viruses were more heterogeneous, but most isolates reduced host populations by many orders of magnitude, without recovery over the ~25 day experiments. Our results suggest that disparate lineages of viruses may have ecological consequences that are predictable in part based on size, and that ecosystem impacts of viral infection may vary with the size structure of the viral community.

侵染水生微生物的病毒在体型上存在极大差异，但病毒体型所产生的生态效应仍知之甚少。本研究依托一系列独特且多样的浮游植物菌株及其专属病毒（所有菌株与病毒均分离自夏威夷周边水域），旨在探究病毒体型是否会对宿主种群的抑制效应产生影响。研究结果显示，基因组类型多样的小型病毒（基因组大小为3–24千碱基（kilobase, kb），衣壳直径为23–70纳米（nanometer, nm））对宿主种群的影响高度相似：相较于大型双链DNA（double-stranded DNA, dsDNA）病毒（基因组大小为214–1380 kb，衣壳直径为112–386 nm），这类小型病毒对宿主的抑制强度更低、持续时长更短。大型病毒的抑制效应异质性更强，但大多数分离株可使宿主种群数量降低数个数量级，且在为期约25天的实验周期内未出现宿主种群恢复的情况。本研究结果表明，不同演化支系的病毒，其生态效应可在一定程度上依据病毒体型进行预测；同时，病毒侵染所带来的生态系统影响，或会随病毒群落的体型结构发生变化。