Vicennial metagenomic time series unveils evolutionary dynamics of giant viruses in a freshwater ecosystem
Yumary M. Vasquez, Miguel F. Romero, Robert M. Bowers, Robin R. Rohwer, Katherine D. McMahon, Tanja Woyke, Frederik Schulz · 2026
Read Vicennial metagenomic time series unveils evolutionary dynamics of giant viruses in a freshwater ecosystem by Yumary M. Vasquez, Miguel F. Romero, Robert M. Bowers, Robin R. Rohwer, Katherine D. McMahon, Tanja Woyke, Frederik Schulz (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13396486.txt.
Description
Vasquez and co-authors analyze, in 2026, a twenty-year metagenomic time series of giant viruses in Lake Mendota, Wisconsin, the longest such record for a freshwater lake. From 471 co-assembled metagenomes spanning 2000 to 2019, they reconstructed 1,512 giant virus genomes. Viruses of the order Imitervirales dominated throughout, making up 89.6 percent of the genomes across seasons and years.
Gene duplication accounted for 23 percent of viral genes and horizontal gene transfer for 29 percent, marking both as engines of change in these viruses. Virus-host interaction networks intensified after 2009, when an invasive predatory zooplankton entered the lake, and positively selected viral genes rose after the invasion, especially infection-related ones. Genome-wide substitution rates in giant viruses resembled those of co-occurring bacteria but ran significantly slower than in smaller double-stranded DNA phages. The authors cast giant viruses as stable yet adaptable players in freshwater ecology.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yumary M. Vasquez, Miguel F. Romero, Robert M. Bowers, Robin R. Rohwer, Katherine D. McMahon, Tanja Woyke, Frederik Schulz |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 67 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |