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Viruses in soils: morphological diversity and abundance in the rhizosphere
Author(s) -
Swanson M.M.,
Fraser G.,
Daniell T.J.,
Torrance L.,
Gregory P.J.,
Taliansky M.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.2009.00319.x
Subject(s) - rhizosphere , biology , abundance (ecology) , soil water , relative species abundance , population , bulk soil , host (biology) , ecology , soil microbiology , botany , bacteria , genetics , demography , sociology
Soil viruses are potentially of great importance as they may influence the ecology and evolution of soil biological communities through both an ability to transfer genes from host to host and as a potential cause of microbial mortality. Despite this importance, the area of soil virology is understudied. Here, we report the isolation and preliminary characterisation of viruses from soils in the Dundee area of Scotland. Different virus morphotypes including tailed, polyhedral (spherical), rod shaped, filamentous and bacilliform particles were detected in the soil samples. An apparent predominance of small spherical and filamentous bacteriophages was observed, whereas tailed bacteriophages were significantly less abundant. In this report, we also present observations and characterisation of viruses from different soil functional domains surrounding wheat roots: rhizosheath, rhizosphere and bulk soil. In spite of the differences in abundance of bacterial communities in these domains, no significant variations in viral population structure in terms of morphology and abundance were found. Typically, there were approximately 1.1–1.2 × 10 9 virions g −1 dry weight, implicating remarkable differences in virus‐to‐bacteria ratios in domains close to roots, rhizosphere and rhizosheath (approximately 0.27) and in bulk soil (approximately 4.68).