Genomic adaptation of giant viruses in polar oceans

Abstract

Despite being perennially frigid, polar oceans form an ecosystem hosting high and unique biodiversity. Various organisms show different adaptive strategies in this habitat, but how viruses adapt to this environment is largely unknown. Viruses of phyla Nucleocytoviricota and Mirusviricota are groups of eukaryote-infecting large and giant DNA viruses with genomes encoding a variety of functions. Here, by leveraging the Global Ocean Eukaryotic Viral database, we investigate the biogeography and functional repertoire of these viruses at a global scale. We first confirm the existence of an ecological barrier that clearly separates polar and nonpolar viral communities, and then demonstrate that temperature drives dramatic changes in the virus–host network at the polar–nonpolar boundary. Ancestral niche reconstruction suggests that adaptation of these viruses to polar conditions has occurred repeatedly over the course of evolution, with polar-adapted viruses in the modern ocean being scattered across their phylogeny. Numerous viral genes are specifically associated with polar adaptation, although most of their homologues are not identified as polar-adaptive genes in eukaryotes. These results suggest that giant viruses adapt to cold environments by changing their functional repertoire, and this viral evolutionary strategy is distinct from the polar adaptation strategy of their hosts.

This study examines the biogeography and functional gene repertoires of marine eukaryote-infecting large and giant DNA viruses. It shows a clear divide in the viral communities between polar and nonpolar environments, with recurrent evolutionary adaptations to the polar environment likely driven by alterations of their genomic functions.