| Description |
Bacteriophages, a group of viruses that infect bacteria, are the most abundant biological entities on earth and play an outstanding role in microbial population dynamics in various ecosystems. Their potential as a driving force in the evolution of microbial communities through controlling the bacterial population, naturally selecting phage-resistant bacteria, and facilitating horizontal gene transfer has been studied mostly in an isolated environment like a laboratory setting. However, few studies have demonstrated the interaction between phages and the microbial communities in different natural ecosystems and hypersaline environments. The purpose of this research was to study the role of bacteriophages in functional gene transfer and how their hosts affect different nutrient cycles along with the interaction between bacteriophages and bacteria in a natural ecosystem using metagenomics approach with the knowledge of the state-of-the-art bioinformatics. The ecosystem studied in this research was the hypersaline Great Salt Lake, the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere, for understanding the phage-host interactions. The sediment and water samples were collected from the deep brine layer of the Great Salt Lake, and analysis was conducted for different biogeochemistry. Also, the sediment sample was analyzed for both bacteria and viruses (bacteriophages) with metagenomics approach. Analyzing the viral and bacterial metagenomes explored the GC content, oligonucleotide frequency, genetic homology, Clustered Regularly Interspaced iv Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPRs), and prophage identification. The in-depth metagenomics analysis identified phage and bacterial communities extensively and their effects on various nutrient cycles. This study also showed the variation in the prokaryotic community involved in various biogeochemical cycling due to the salinity gradient in the south arm caused by the railroad causeway constructed between 1955 to 1959, which divided the lake into two highly variable saline parts. The findings of microbial population, diversity, and their functional genes in this research using metagenomics approach will enhance the understanding of the bacterial and viral diversity in the Great Salt Lake and will be supportive in establishing metabolic models to better study the microbial interaction in various hypersaline ecosystems. |
