Virus-host interactions predictor (VHIP): Machine learning approach to resolve microbial virus-host interaction networks.

Viruses of microbes are ubiquitous biological entities that reprogram their hosts' metabolisms during infection in order to produce viral progeny, impacting the ecology and evolution of microbiomes with broad implications for human and environmental health. Advances in genome sequencing have led to the discovery of millions of novel viruses and an appreciation for the great diversity of viruses on Earth. Yet, with knowledge of only "who is there?" we fall short in our ability to infer the impacts of viruses on microbes at population, community, and ecosystem-scales.

Informing the Exposure Landscape: The Fate of Microplastics in a Large Pelagic In-Lake Mesocosm Experiment.

Understanding microplastic exposure and effects is critical to understanding risk. Here, we used large, in-lake closed-bottom mesocosms to investigate exposure and effects on pelagic freshwater ecosystems. This article provides details about the experimental design and results on the transport of microplastics and exposure to pelagic organisms.

Genomic insights into the coupling of a Chlorella-like microeukaryote and sulfur bacteria in the chemocline of permanently stratified Lake Cadagno.

Meromictic Lake Cadagno is a permanently stratified system with a persistent microbial bloom within the oxic-anoxic boundary called the chemocline. The association between oxygenic and anoxygenic photosynthesis within the chemocline has been known for at least two decades. Although anoxygenic purple and green sulfur bacteria have been well studied, reports on oxygenic phytoplankton have remained sparse since their discovery in the 1920s.

Cross-Hemisphere Study Reveals Geographically Ubiquitous, Plastic-Specific Bacteria Emerging from the Rare and Unexplored Biosphere.

While it is now appreciated that the millions of tons of plastic pollution travelling through marine systems carry complex communities of microorganisms, it is still unknown to what extent these biofilm communities are specific to the plastic or selected by the surrounding ecosystem. To address this, we characterized and compared the microbial communities of microplastic particles, nonplastic (natural and wax) particles, and the surrounding waters from three marine ecosystems (the Baltic, Sargasso and Mediterranean seas) using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We found that biofilm communities on microplastic and nonplastic particles were highly similar to one another across this broad geographical range.

Exopolymeric Substances Control Microbial Community Structure and Function by Contributing to both C and Fe Nutrition in Fe-Limited Southern Ocean Provinces.

Organic ligands such as exopolymeric substances (EPS) are known to form complexes with iron (Fe) and modulate phytoplankton growth. However, the effect of organic ligands on bacterial and viral communities remains largely unknown. Here, we assessed how Fe associated with organic ligands influences phytoplankton, microbial, and viral abundances and their diversity in the Southern Ocean.

Antagonistic interactions between garden yeasts and microfungal garden pathogens of leaf-cutting ants.

We investigate the diversity of yeasts isolated in gardens of the leafcutter ant Atta texana. Repeated sampling of gardens from four nests over a 1-year time period showed that gardens contain a diverse assemblage of yeasts. The yeast community in gardens consisted mostly of yeasts associated with plants or soil, but community composition changed between sampling periods.