Eukaryotic virus composition can predict the efficiency of carbon export in the global ocean

• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.102002
• Publication Date: 2020-12-29T02:22:42Z
• Authors: Hiroto Kaneko; Romain Blanc-Mathieu; Hisashi Endo; Samuel Chaffron; Tom O. Delmont; Morgan Gaia; Nicolas Henry; Rodrigo Hernández...; Canh Hao Nguyen; Hiroshi Mamitsuka; Patrick Forterre; Olivier Jaillon; Colomban de Vargas; Matthew B. Sullivan; Curtis A. Suttle; Lionel Guidi; Hiroyuki Ogata
• Keywords: Carbon fibers; Carbon flux

The biological carbon pump, in which fixed by photosynthesis is exported to the deep ocean through sinking, a major process Earth's cycle. proportion of primary production that termed export efficiency (CEE). Based on in-lab or regional scale observations, viruses were previously suggested affect CEE (i.e., viral "shunt" and "shuttle"). In this study, we tested associations between community composition measured at global scale. A regression model based relative abundance marker genes explained 67% variation CEE. Viruses with high importance predicted infect ecologically important hosts. These results are consistent view shunt shuttle functions large further imply likely act way dependent their hosts ecosystem dynamics.