Modeling ecological drivers in marine viral communities using comparative metagenomics and network analyses

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1319778111
• Publication Date: 2014-07-08T03:01:33Z
• Authors: Bonnie L. Hurwitz; Anton H. Westveld; Jennifer R. Brum; Matthew B. Sullivan
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Pacific Ocean; Genes, Viral; Microbiota; Oceans and Seas; Bayes Theorem; Marine Biology; Models, Biological; 03 medical and health sciences; Viruses; Gene Regulatory Networks; Metagenomics; Seasons; 14. Life underwater

Significance Microorganisms and their viruses are increasingly recognized as drivers of myriad ecosystem processes. However, our knowledge roles is limited by the inability culture-dependent culture-independent (e.g., metagenomics) methods to be fully implemented at scales relevant diversity found in nature. Here we combine advances bioinformatics (shared k-mer analyses) social networking (regression modeling) develop an annotation- assembly-free visualization analytical strategy for comparative metagenomics that uses all data a unified statistical framework. Application 32 Pacific Ocean viromes, first large-scale quantitative viral metagenomic dataset, tested existing generated further hypotheses about ecological community structure. Highly computationally scalable, this new approach enables diverse sequence-based studies.