土壤宏病毒组的研究方法与进展

土壤是病毒遗传多样性的储存库,但由于土壤自身特性及技术手段的限制,基于传统培养方法对土壤病毒的研究及功能认知存在局限性。宏病毒组学技术能直接从土壤环境样品中获取病毒基因组,随后通过高通量测序、拼接组装、ORF预测,最终可对病毒基因进行功能注释,极大地丰富了对土壤病毒功能的认识。本文在阐释土壤病毒DNA提取、测序与病毒判别、功能基因注释等研究方法的基础上,重点探讨了单株噬菌体基因组,及近年来国内外土壤与极端陆地环境中宏病毒组研究进展。并对土壤宏病毒基因组研究的前沿和发展趋势进行了总结,强调了土壤病毒研究的整体化、技术流程规范化以及病毒资源库完善化的重要性。

Review in the soil virus metagenome analytical methods and progress

Soil is one of the most important reservoirs of virus genetic diversity. Due to the limitation of soil characteristics and technical means, most soil virus remains largely unknown. The viral metagenome analysis has contributed significantly to understanding the viral functions in the soil ecosystem. This review briefly summarizes the analytical methods that are extensively used in the soil virus metagenomic studies, including soil virus DNA extraction, sequencing and virus identification, functional gene annotation and etc. Meanwhile, the research progress in the phage genomes harbored in the culturable bacterial strains, and the viral metagenomes in terrestrial ecosystems were reviewed as well. This work highlights the significance of integrating currently-available virus analytical techniques, building standard viral analysis procedures, and optimizing the virus relevant databases.