In the oceans, marine viruses play a central role in the energy and nutrient cycles. Further, they are key drives of evolutionary processes, as they carry out horizontal gene transfer (HGT) between microbial hosts. As well as increasing microbial diversity by selectively killing the dominant microbial host, preventing the dominance of a single host.
Yet over our knowledge of marine viruses is primarily from dsDNA phages infecting prokaryotes. Knowledge on DNA and RNA viruses within marine eukaryotes and in particular corals remains limited. The focus of our research is therefore to fill this dearth in knowledge on the ecology and evolution of marine viruses. |