Thousands of soil viruses are killing microbes, especially in farm soils
Osburn ED, Kim M
Soil Health
Every time you add compost, mulch, or root-zone sugars to a bed, you feed fast-growing bacteria, and this study shows viruses in the soil pick off those boomers, especially in depleted, garden-like soils.
Scientists fed soil a special labeled sugar and tracked where the labeled carbon ended up. It showed up in the DNA of more than 5,000 viruses that had killed bacteria that ate the sugar. Fast-growing bacteria got attacked the most, and viruses were far busier in farm soil than in forest soil.
Key Findings
More than 5,000 virus populations showed isotope labeling, meaning they were actively lysing (killing) microbes that had taken up 13C-labeled glucose.
Active viruses infected hosts from 197 microbial families across 28 prokaryotic phyla, with Bacillota, Bacteroidota, and Pseudomonadota hit hardest.
Viral lysis was greater in carbon-limited agricultural soils than in carbon-rich forest soils, and the degree of labeling correlated positively with host growth potential.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers found thousands of active viruses in soil that kill bacteria feeding on fresh sugar, and they hit fast-growing microbes hardest. Farm soils short on carbon saw far more viral killing than carbon-rich forest soils, so viruses shape soil life differently from place to place.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Virome DNA stable isotope probing reveals diverse active soil virus communities across ecosystem contexts.
Viruses are increasingly recognized as important players in soil ecosystems, but the active lytic virus populations that influence microbe-mediated terrestrial ecosystem processes remain mostly unc...
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