Viruses in soil hitch a ride with microscopic worms called nematodes-a surprise to the researchers who presented findings on bioRxiv. Distances, though apparently inconsequential for other animals traversed by nematodes, really equate to several thousands of miles for these microorganisms, says John Dennehy, a viral ecologist at Queens College.
The finding offers one of the first clear explanations for how phages-a class of viruses that infect bacteria-manage to reach their faraway hosts, given they themselves don’t have any motility. The research opens up new possibilities for crop protection and gives insights into soil-borne diseases, says University of Portland microbiologist Molly Matty.
Almost two decades ago, Dennehy’s work indicated that soil phages utilize nematodes as a transportation system. His experiments demonstrated that nematodes can consume infected bacteria and then transport the viruses across a lab dish to infect more bacteria. But this behaviour had yet to be confirmed outside controlled conditions.
That was until Lisa van Sluijs of Wageningen University teamed up with soil ecologist Kyle Mason-Jones of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology. They simulated Dennehy’s experiment under field conditions using compost and sandy soil. The results couldn’t have been more groundbreaking: phages mixed with nematodes, such as Caenorhabditis elegans or C. remanei, managed to bridge the gap between infected and uninfected bacteria.
Even more astonishingly, the researchers found that phages not only took a ride inside nematodes that had ingested an infected bacterium but also could adhere to the worms’ exterior surfaces. The nematodes, in turn transported the viruses to new bacterial hosts as they migrated through soil.
To Philippe Baveye, an independent soil ecologist, this finding represents an important piece of the puzzle of how the phages may find and infect their bacterial hosts in soil. Moreover, Matty considers that nematodes might also hitchhike on larger organisms like slugs, thereby further extending the reach for phages.
The study highlights the important role of phages in soil ecology, as viruses accelerate bacterial death, hence impacting organic carbon storage in soil. How phages move and disperse could show their impacts on plant health and human diseases. Van Sluijs intends to further investigate the dynamics using computer models.
This finding points out a very important leap in our understanding of microbial interactions and opens exciting avenues for further research on phage mobility and its ecological consequences.
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