World - Scientists Collect Entirely New Type of Virus From Marianas Trench Ocean Abyss
Scientists recovered a sample of the virus from an astonishing 5.5 miles below the waves.
Scientists have discovered a novel marine virus that lives at an astonishing depth of 8,900 meters (roughly 5.5 miles) under the ocean surface, making it the deepest known isolated phage ever found in the global seas, reports a new study. The rare find could shed light on the microbial ecosystems that lurk in the deepest reaches of the ocean, known as the “hadal” zone, which play critical roles in the global climate and carbon cycle.
The virus was identified in sediments hauled up from the Mariana Trench, a vast formation in the Pacific Ocean that hosts the deepest abysses on Earth. It belongs to an entirely new family of so-called “siphoviruses,” known as Suviridae, that only infect bacteria and cannot use humans as a host.
Viruses that live and replicate in bacterial hosts are known as bacteriophages, and they are a ubiquitous presence in every ecosystem on Earth—including the Mariana Trench. Scientists have previously discovered bacteriophages at depths of up to 8,636 meters in the trench, though the nature of these viruses is still largely unknown.
Now, scientists led by Yue Su, a researcher at the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, report the discovery of a new bacteriophage in trench samples captured at a depth of 8,900 meters, which is about 260 meters (800 feet) deeper than the previous record-holder. Scientists report that the phage, which is known as vB_HmeY_H4907, is “the deepest known phage isolated to date” and that “it represents a novel abundant viral family in the ocean,” according to a study published on Wednesday in Microbiology Spectrum.
“We are marine virologists, and our research team's primary focus lies in investigating the community structure, diversity, distribution patterns, regulatory mechanisms, and ecological roles of viruses and their hosts in various marine habitats, such as polar regions and the deep sea,” said Su and two of her co-authors, Min Wang and Yantao Liang, in an email to Motherboard.
