Graham, Emily B., Camargo, Antonio Pedro, Wu, Ruonan, Neches, Russell Y., Nolan, Matt, Paez-Espino, David, Kyrpides, Nikos C., Jansson, Janet K., McDermott, Jason E., Hofmockel, Kirsten S., Blanchard, Jeffrey L., Liu, Xiao Jun A., Rodrigues, Jorge L. Mazza, Freedman, Zachary B., Baldrian, Petr, Stursova, Martina, DeAngelis, Kristen M., Lee, Sungeun, Godoy-Vitorino, Filipa, Yeoh, Yun Kit, Cadillo-Quiroz, Hinsby, Tringe, Susannah G., Chauhan, Archana, Cowan, Don A., Van Goethem, Marc W., Woyke, Tanja, Dove, Nicholas C., Konstantinidis, Konstantinos T., Juenger, Thomas E., Hart, Stephen C., Myrold, David D., Onstott, Tullis C., Bohannan, Brendan J. M., Schmer, Marty R., Palmer, Nathan A., Nüsslein, Klaus, Makhalanyane, Thulani P., Dynarski, Katherine A., Taş, Neslihan, Nicol, Graeme W., Hazard, Christina, Scully, Erin D., Jain, Kunal R., Madamwar, Datta, Bissett, Andrew, Constant, Philippe, Oliveira, Rafael S., Takacs-Vesbach, Cristina, Cregger, Melissa A., Carrell, Alyssa A., Klingeman, Dawn M., and Pietrasiak, Nicole (2024) A global atlas of soil viruses reveals unexplored biodiversity and potential biogeochemical impacts. Nature Microbiology, 9. pp. 1873-1883.

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Abstract

Historically neglected by microbial ecologists, soil viruses are now thought to be critical to global biogeochemical cycles. However, our understanding of their global distribution, activities and interactions with the soil microbiome remains limited. Here we present the Global Soil Virus Atlas, a comprehensive dataset compiled from 2,953 previously sequenced soil metagenomes and composed of 616,935 uncultivated viral genomes and 38,508 unique viral operational taxonomic units. Rarefaction curves from the Global Soil Virus Atlas indicate that most soil viral diversity remains unexplored, further underscored by high spatial turnover and low rates of shared viral operational taxonomic units across samples. By examining genes associated with biogeochemical functions, we also demonstrate the viral potential to impact soil carbon and nutrient cycling. This study represents an extensive characterization of soil viral diversity and provides a foundation for developing testable hypotheses regarding the role of the virosphere in the soil microbiome and global biogeochemistry.

Item ID:	91193
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2058-5276
Copyright Information:	© Battelle Memorial Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Date Deposited:	27 Jul 2026 05:37
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3107 Microbiology > 310703 Microbial ecology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 50% 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280111 Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences @ 50%
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