High Diversity of the Viral Community from an Antarctic Lake

Abstract

Shivering Viromes Despite its icy reputation, freshwater ponds and lakes do occur in Antarctica, and open freshwater can be found for a few brief weeks during the austral summer. The ecology of these lakes is, as expected, rather specialized to cope with the extreme seasonal conditions. In a metagenomic study, López-Bueno et al. (p. 858 ) inspected the virus community of Lake Limnopolar on Livingston Island and found an unexpectedly rich genetic diversity. A dominant group of previously unidentified single-stranded DNA viruses was found, and a striking shift after ice-melt in spring from single-stranded to double-stranded DNA viruses was observed, probably as their algal hosts started to bloom with increasing daylight hours. The diverse viruses may donate specialized genes that host organisms can also exploit to aid their survival under winter extremes of heat and light deprivation.