Research Progress in Area 1 方向 ( 一 ) 課題進展 91 Abstract By infecting and lysing their single-celled hosts, marine viruses redistribute nearly onequarter of microbial organic matter back into the microbial loop. In addition to fertilizing the ocean, they alter community composition through the density dependent spread of infection. Therefore, determining which microbial hosts are experiencing viral infection is a critical step in understanding community ecology as well as the overall flow of energy and matter in the ocean. To determine the precise effect that viruses have on the ecology of microbes, as well as their ultimate impact on biogeochemical cycling, Dr. Yung proposes to identify active host-virus pairs in particles. Objectives of this project are to 1) examine the temporal dynamics of hostviral pairs in subtropical waters; and 2) explore how eutrophication and temperature impact the marine viral infection and microbial community composition. Research Activities and Progress • Collected monthly water samples for 12 months; • Joined the HKB cruise to study the microbial and viral community structure in estuary and coastal South China Sea; • Successfully sequenced 12 monthly samples of Fe-flocculation marine virus DNA samples. • Optimized the RNA extraction protocol and sequence the metatranscriptome ; • Optimized the Hi-C workflow with the recommendation from the company Phase Genomics and sequenced 8 monthly samples. Key Findings • Preliminary analysis using VirSorter shows that a high diversity of viruses exists in Hong Kong waters, including double stranded DNA phages, single stranded DNA phage, Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses and lavidaviridae; • Temporal dynamics of the viral diversity were observed. Research Output Publication 0 Trained personnel 2 Identify Host-virus Pairs that are in the Process of Active Infection Prof. Charmaine Cheuk Man Yung The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Fig 1. Overview of the multi-omics approaches used in this project
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