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Grassland Soil Wet-Up Virus-Host Community

Community ID CommunityMech:000224
Ecological State PERTURBED
Environment California Mediterranean-climate grassland soil
ENVO:00005750

A grassland soil virus-host community whose dynamics were measured following rewetting of a seasonally dry California Mediterranean-climate soil. Dry soil holds a diverse but low-biomass reservoir of virions, of which only a subset thrives following wet-up. Quantitative isotope tracing, time-resolved metagenomics, and viromics show viral richness declines by 50 percent within 24 hours post wet-up while viral biomass increases four-fold within one week. Lytic, not lysogenic, cycles dominate the response. Viruses drive a measurable and continuous rate of cell lysis, accounting for up to 46 percent of microbial death one week after wet-up, contributing to microbial biomass turnover and the widely reported post-wet-up CO2 efflux.

Taxonomy

Taxon Ontology ID Functional Roles Abundance
soil DNA viruses (virions) NCBITaxon:10239 N/A
  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "dry soil holds a diverse but low biomass reservoir of virions, of which only a subset thrives following wet-up"
grassland soil bacterial hosts NCBITaxon:2
PRIMARY_DEGRADER
N/A
  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "resident microbes are both resuscitated and lysed after a prolonged dry period"

Ecological Interactions

Ecological interaction network for Grassland Soil Wet-Up Virus-Host Community Bipartite graph where circle nodes represent taxa and colored rectangles represent ecological interactions (cross-feeding, mutualism, syntrophy, competition, commensalism).
Taxon
Cross-feeding
Mutualism
Syntrophy
Competition
Commensalism
Niche partitioning
Colonization facilitation
Strain competition
Predation

Lytic Virus Activity Dominates Wet-Up Response

PREDATION

Evidence

  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "viruses in lytic cycles dominate the response to wet-up"
  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "Viral richness decreases by 50% within 24 h post wet-up, while viral biomass increases four-fold within one week"

Viral Lysis Drives Microbial Death and CO2 Efflux

PREDATION

Source Taxon: soil DNA viruses (virions)

Target Taxon: grassland soil bacterial hosts

Metabolites: carbon dioxide (CHEBI:16526)

Biological Processes:

Evidence

  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "up to 46% of microbial death driven by viral lysis one week following wet-up"
  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "viruses contribute to turnover of soil microbial biomass and the widely reported CO2 efflux following wet-up of seasonally dry soils"

External Resources

Name Repository Resource ID
Primary publication for the grassland wet-up virus-host community
PubMed record for the Nicolas et al. 2023 Nat Commun paper on soil viruses thriving following microbial resuscitation during rewetting. 		OTHER PMID:37730729
  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "lineage-specific virus-host dynamics in grassland soil following "wet-up""
DOI landing page
DOI link to the Nature Communications paper. 		OTHER doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40835-4

Environmental Factors

Factor Value Unit
Wet-up event prolonged dry period followed by laboratory rewetting N/A
  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "how they respond to perturbation of soil ecosystems is essentially unknown"
Time course post wet-up 24 h to one week post wet-up N/A
  • PMID:37730729 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)
    "50% within 24 h post wet-up, while viral biomass increases four-fold within one week"