Archaeal Viruses from High-Temperature Environments

Jacob Munson-Mcgee,Jamie Snyder,Mark Young

doi:10.3390/genes9030128

Jacob Munson-Mcgee, Jamie Snyder + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9030128

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Abstract

Archaeal viruses are some of the most enigmatic viruses known, due to the small number that have been characterized to date. The number of known archaeal viruses lags behind known bacteriophages by over an order of magnitude. Despite this, the high levels of genetic and morphological diversity that archaeal viruses display has attracted researchers for over 45 years. Extreme natural environments, such as acidic hot springs, are almost exclusively populated by Archaea and their viruses, making these attractive environments for the discovery and characterization of new viruses. The archaeal viruses from these environments have provided insights into archaeal biology, gene function, and viral evolution. This review focuses on advances from over four decades of archaeal virology, with a particular focus on archaeal viruses from high temperature environments, the existing challenges in understanding archaeal virus gene function, and approaches being taken to overcome these limitations.

Highlights

Archaea are well known as extremophiles that can thrive in some of the most extreme and inhospitable environments [1]
Most of the archaeal viruses that have been described to date have been isolated from either high-salt environments or high-temperature (>70 ◦ C) hot springs, making them ideal tools with which to study the genes and genomics of biological entities from extreme environments
This review will focus on what we have learned from nearly 45 years of examining archaeal viral genes, and the significant challenges that remain in understanding the function of archaeal viral genes and their interactions with their hosts

Summary

Introduction

Archaea are well known as extremophiles that can thrive in some of the most extreme and inhospitable environments [1]. In addition to lacking bacterial species, these environments frequently have a low diversity of archaeal species present (typically

Challenges

Archaeal Virus Life Style and Gene Functions

Findings

Future Prospects