Viruses in soils: morphological diversity and abundance in the rhizosphere

Swanson, M.M., Fraser, G., Daniell, T.J., Torrance, L., Gregory, P.J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4118-4833 and Taliansky, M. (2009) Viruses in soils: morphological diversity and abundance in the rhizosphere. Annals of Applied Biology, 155 (1). pp. 51-60. ISSN 0003-4746 doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7348.2009.00319.x

Abstract/Summary

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 × 109 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).

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/32012
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Centre for Food Security Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Crop Science Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Soil Research Centre
Uncontrolled Keywords	Rhizosphere;soil microbial community;viruses
Publisher	Wiley-Blackwell
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