New archaeal viruses discovered by metagenomic analysis of viral communities in enrichment cultures

Regulatory sequence-based discovery of anti-defense genes in archaeal viruses

In silico identification of viral anti-CRISPR proteins (Acrs) has relied largely on the guilt-by-association method using known Acrs or anti-CRISPR associated proteins (Acas) as the bait. However, the low number and limited spread of the characterized archaeal Acrs and Aca hinders our ability to identify Acrs using guilt-by-association. Here, based on the observation that the few characterized archaeal Acrs and Aca are transcribed immediately post viral infection, we hypothesize that these genes, and many other unidentified anti-defense genes (ADG), are under the control of conserved regulatory sequences including a strong promoter, which can be used to predict anti-defense genes in archaeal viruses. Using this consensus sequence based method, we identify 354 potential ADGs in 57 archaeal viruses and 6 metagenome-assembled genomes. Experimental validation identified a CRISPR subtype I-A inhibitor and the first virally encoded inhibitor of an archaeal toxin-antitoxin based immune system. We also identify regulatory proteins potentially akin to Acas that can facilitate further identification of ADGs combined with the guilt-by-association approach. These results demonstrate the potential of regulatory sequence analysis for extensive identification of ADGs in viruses of archaea and bacteria.

Archaeal virus entry and egress

Archaeal viruses display a high degree of structural and genomic diversity. Few details are known about the mechanisms by which these viruses enter and exit their host cells. Research on archaeal viruses has lately made significant progress due to advances in genetic tools and imaging techniques, such as cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). In recent years, a steady output of newly identified archaeal viral receptors and egress mechanisms has offered the first insight into how archaeal viruses interact with the archaeal cell envelope. As more details about archaeal viral entry and egress are unravelled, patterns are starting to emerge. This helps to better understand the interactions between viruses and the archaeal cell envelope and how these compare to infection strategies of viruses in other domains of life. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in the field of archaeal viral entry and egress, shedding light onto the most elusive part of the virosphere.

Exploring the Archaeal Virosphere by Metagenomics

During the past decade, environmental research has demonstrated that archaea are abundant and widespread in nature and play important ecological roles at a global scale. Currently, however, the majority of archaeal lineages cannot be cultivated under laboratory conditions and are known exclusively or nearly exclusively through metagenomics. A similar trend extends to the archaeal virosphere, where isolated representatives are available for a handful of model archaeal virus-host systems. Viral metagenomics provides an alternative way to circumvent the limitations of culture-based virus discovery and offers insight into the diversity, distribution, and environmental impact of uncultured archaeal viruses. Presently, metagenomics approaches have been successfully applied to explore the viromes associated with various lineages of extremophilic and mesophilic archaea, including Asgard archaea (Asgardarchaeota), ANME-1 archaea (Methanophagales), thaumarchaea (Nitrososphaeria), altiarchaea (Altiarchaeota), and marine group II archaea (Poseidoniales). Here, we provide an overview of methods widely used in archaeal virus metagenomics, covering metavirome preparation, genome annotation, phylogenetic and phylogenomic analyses, and archaeal host assignment. We hope that this summary will contribute to further exploration and characterization of the enigmatic archaeal virome lurking in diverse environments.

Viruses of the Turriviridae: an emerging model system for studying archaeal virus-host interactions

Viruses have played a central role in the evolution and ecology of cellular life since it first arose. Investigations into viral molecular biology and ecological dynamics have propelled abundant progress in our understanding of living systems, including genetic inheritance, cellular signaling and trafficking, and organismal development. As well, the discovery of viral lineages that infect members of all three domains suggest that these lineages originated at the earliest stages of biological evolution. Research into these viruses is helping to elucidate the conditions under which life arose, and the dynamics that directed its early development. Archaeal viruses have only recently become a subject of intense study, but investigations have already produced intriguing and exciting results. STIV was originally discovered in Yellowstone National Park and has been the focus of concentrated research. Through this research, a viral genetic system was created, a novel lysis mechanism was discovered, and the interaction of the virus with cellular ESCRT machinery was revealed. This review will summarize the discoveries within this group of viruses and will also discuss future work.

Isolation of archaeal viruses with lipid membrane from Tengchong acidic hot springs

Archaeal viruses are one of the most mysterious parts of the virosphere because of their diverse morphologies and unique genome contents. The crenarchaeal viruses are commonly found in high temperature and acidic hot springs, and the number of identified crenarchaeal viruses is being rapidly increased in recent two decades. Over fifty viruses infecting the members of the order Sulfolobales have been identified, most of which are from hot springs distributed in the United States, Russia, Iceland, Japan, and Italy. To further expand the reservoir of viruses infecting strains of Sulfolobaceae, we investigated virus diversity through cultivation-dependent approaches in hot springs in Tengchong, Yunnan, China. Eight different virus-like particles were detected in enrichment cultures, among which five new archaeal viruses were isolated and characterized. We showed that these viruses can infect acidophilic hyperthermophiles belonging to three different genera of the family Sulfolobaceae, namely, Saccharolobus, Sulfolobus, and Metallosphaera. We also compared the lipid compositions of the viral and cellular membranes and found that the lipid composition of some viral envelopes was very different from that of the host membrane. Collectively, our results showed that the Tengchong hot springs harbor highly diverse viruses, providing excellent models for archaeal virus-host studies.

Cellular and Natural Viral Engineering in Cognition-Based Evolution

Neo-Darwinism conceptualizes evolution as the continuous succession of predominately random genetic variations disciplined by natural selection. In that frame, the primary interaction between cells and the virome is relegated to host-parasite dynamics governed by selective influences. Cognition-Based Evolution regards biological and evolutionary development as a reciprocating cognition-based informational interactome for the protection of self-referential cells. To sustain cellular homeorhesis, cognitive cells collaborate to assess the validity of ambiguous biological information. That collective interaction involves coordinate measurement, communication, and active deployment of resources as Natural Cellular Engineering. These coordinated activities drive multicellularity, biological development, and evolutionary change. The virome participates as the vital intercessory among the cellular domains to ensure their shared permanent perpetuation. The interactions between the virome and the cellular domains represent active virocellular cross-communications for the continual exchange of resources. Modular genetic transfers between viruses and cells carry bioactive potentials. Those exchanges are deployed as nonrandom flexible tools among the domains in their continuous confrontation with environmental stresses. This alternative framework fundamentally shifts our perspective on viral-cellular interactions, strengthening established principles of viral symbiogenesis. Pathogenesis can now be properly appraised as one expression of a range of outcomes between cells and viruses within a larger conceptual framework of Natural Viral Engineering as a co-engineering participant with cells. It is proposed that Natural Viral Engineering should be viewed as a co-existent facet of Natural Cellular Engineering within Cognition-Based Evolution.

Viral informatics: bioinformatics-based solution for managing viral infections

Several new viral infections have emerged in the human population and establishing as global pandemics. With advancements in translation research, the scientific community has developed potential therapeutics to eradicate or control certain viral infections, such as smallpox and polio, responsible for billions of disabilities and deaths in the past. Unfortunately, some viral infections, such as dengue virus (DENV) and human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), are still prevailing due to a lack of specific therapeutics, while new pathogenic viral strains or variants are emerging because of high genetic recombination or cross-species transmission. Consequently, to combat the emerging viral infections, bioinformatics-based potential strategies have been developed for viral characterization and developing new effective therapeutics for their eradication or management. This review attempts to provide a single platform for the available wide range of bioinformatics-based approaches, including bioinformatics methods for the identification and management of emerging or evolved viral strains, genome analysis concerning the pathogenicity and epidemiological analysis, computational methods for designing the viral therapeutics, and consolidated information in the form of databases against the known pathogenic viruses. This enriched review of the generally applicable viral informatics approaches aims to provide an overview of available resources capable of carrying out the desired task and may be utilized to expand additional strategies to improve the quality of translation viral informatics research.

A filamentous archaeal virus is enveloped inside the cell and released through pyramidal portals

The majority of viruses infecting hyperthermophilic archaea display unique virion architectures and are evolutionarily unrelated to viruses of bacteria and eukaryotes. The lack of relationships to other known viruses suggests that the mechanisms of virus-host interaction in Archaea are also likely to be distinct. To gain insights into archaeal virus-host interactions, we studied the life cycle of the enveloped, ∼2-μm-long Sulfolobus islandicus filamentous virus (SIFV), a member of the family Lipothrixviridae infecting a hyperthermophilic and acidophilic archaeon Saccharolobus islandicus LAL14/1. Using dual-axis electron tomography and convolutional neural network analysis, we characterize the life cycle of SIFV and show that the virions, which are nearly two times longer than the host cell diameter, are assembled in the cell cytoplasm, forming twisted virion bundles organized on a nonperfect hexagonal lattice. Remarkably, our results indicate that envelopment of the helical nucleocapsids takes place inside the cell rather than by budding as in the case of most other known enveloped viruses. The mature virions are released from the cell through large (up to 220 nm in diameter), six-sided pyramidal portals, which are built from multiple copies of a single 89-amino-acid-long viral protein gp43. The overexpression of this protein in Escherichia coli leads to pyramid formation in the bacterial membrane. Collectively, our results provide insights into the assembly and release of enveloped filamentous viruses and illuminate the evolution of virus-host interactions in Archaea.

New insights into the diversity and evolution of the archaeal mobilome from three complete genomes of Saccharolobus shibatae

Saccharolobus (formerly Sulfolobus) shibatae B12, isolated from a hot spring in Beppu, Japan in 1982, is one of the first hyperthermophilic and acidophilic archaeal species to be discovered. It serves as a natural host to the extensively studied spindle-shaped virus SSV1, a prototype of the Fuselloviridae family. Two additional Sa. shibatae strains, BEU9 and S38A, sensitive to viruses of the families Lipothrixviridae and Portogloboviridae, respectively, have been isolated more recently. However, none of the strains has been fully sequenced, limiting their utility for studies on archaeal biology and virus-host interactions. Here, we present the complete genome sequences of all three Sa. shibatae strains and explore the rich diversity of their integrated mobile genetic elements (MGE), including transposable insertion sequences, integrative and conjugative elements, plasmids, and viruses, some of which were also detected in the extrachromosomal form. Analysis of related MGEs in other Sulfolobales species and patterns of CRISPR spacer targeting revealed a complex network of MGE distributions, involving horizontal spread and relatively frequent host switching by MGEs over large phylogenetic distances, involving species of the genera Saccharolobus, Sulfurisphaera and Acidianus. Furthermore, we characterize a remarkable case of a virus-to-plasmid transition, whereby a fusellovirus has lost the genes encoding for the capsid proteins, while retaining the replication module, effectively becoming a plasmid.

Going to extremes - a metagenomic journey into the dark matter of life

The Virus-X-Viral Metagenomics for Innovation Value-project was a scientific expedition to explore and exploit uncharted territory of genetic diversity in extreme natural environments such as geothermal hot springs and deep-sea ocean ecosystems. Specifically, the project was set to analyse and exploit viral metagenomes with the ultimate goal of developing new gene products with high innovation value for applications in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical, and the life science sectors. Viral gene pool analysis is also essential to obtain fundamental insight into ecosystem dynamics and to investigate how viruses influence the evolution of microbes and multicellular organisms. The Virus-X Consortium, established in 2016, included experts from eight European countries. The unique approach based on high throughput bioinformatics technologies combined with structural and functional studies resulted in the development of a biodiscovery pipeline of significant capacity and scale. The activities within the Virus-X consortium cover the entire range from bioprospecting and methods development in bioinformatics to protein production and characterisation, with the final goal of translating our results into new products for the bioeconomy. The significant impact the consortium made in all of these areas was possible due to the successful cooperation between expert teams that worked together to solve a complex scientific problem using state-of-the-art technologies as well as developing novel tools to explore the virosphere, widely considered as the last great frontier of life.

ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Portogloboviridae

Portogloboviridae is a family of viruses with circular, double-stranded DNA genomes of about 20 kbp. Their icosahedral virions have a diameter of 87 nm, and consist of an outer protein shell, an inner lipid layer and a nucleoprotein core wound up into a spherical coil. Portogloboviruses infect hyperthermophilic archaea of the genus Saccharolobus, order Sulfolobales and are presumably nonlytic. Portogloboviruses encode mini-CRISPR arrays which they use to compete against other co-infecting viruses. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the family Portogloboviridae, which is available at ictv.global/report/portogloboviridae.

Structure and assembly of archaeal viruses

Viruses of archaea represent one of the most enigmatic parts of the virosphere. Most of the characterized archaeal viruses infect extremophilic hosts and display remarkable diversity of virion morphotypes, many of which have never been observed among bacteriophages or viruses of eukaryotes. However, recent environmental studies have shown that archaeal viruses are widespread also in moderate ecosystems, where they play an important ecological role by influencing the turnover of microbial communities, with a global impact on the carbon and nitrogen cycles. In this review, we summarize recent advances in understanding the molecular details of virion organization and assembly of archaeal viruses. We start by briefly introducing the 20 officially recognized families of archaeal viruses and then outline the similarities and differences of archaeal virus assembly with the morphogenesis pathways used by bacterial and eukaryotic viruses, and discuss the evolutionary implications of these observations. Generally, the assembly of the icosahedral archaeal viruses closely follows the mechanisms employed by evolutionarily related bacterial and eukaryotic viruses with the HK97 fold and double jelly-roll major capsid proteins, emphasizing the overall conservation of these pathways over billions of years of evolution. By contrast, archaea-specific viruses employ unique virion assembly mechanisms. We also highlight some of the molecular adaptations underlying the stability of archaeal viruses in extreme environments. Despite considerable progress during the past few years, the archaeal virosphere continues to represent one of the least studied parts of the global virome, with many molecular features awaiting to be discovered and characterized.

New virus isolates from Italian hydrothermal environments underscore the biogeographic pattern in archaeal virus communities

Viruses of hyperthermophilic archaea represent one of the least understood parts of the virosphere, showing little genomic and morphological similarity to viruses of bacteria or eukaryotes. Here, we investigated virus diversity in the active sulfurous fields of the Campi Flegrei volcano in Pozzuoli, Italy. Virus-like particles displaying eight different morphotypes, including lemon-shaped, droplet-shaped and bottle-shaped virions, were observed and five new archaeal viruses proposed to belong to families Rudiviridae, Globuloviridae and Tristromaviridae were isolated and characterized. Two of these viruses infect neutrophilic hyperthermophiles of the genus Pyrobaculum, whereas the remaining three have rod-shaped virions typical of the family Rudiviridae and infect acidophilic hyperthermophiles belonging to three different genera of the order Sulfolobales, namely, Saccharolobus, Acidianus, and Metallosphaera. Notably, Metallosphaera rod-shaped virus 1 is the first rudivirus isolated on Metallosphaera species. Phylogenomic analysis of the newly isolated and previously sequenced rudiviruses revealed a clear biogeographic pattern, with all Italian rudiviruses forming a monophyletic clade, suggesting geographical structuring of virus communities in extreme geothermal environments. Analysis of the CRISPR spacers suggests that isolated rudiviruses have experienced recent host switching across the genus boundary, potentially to escape the targeting by CRISPR-Cas immunity systems. Finally, we propose a revised classification of the Rudiviridae family, with the establishment of six new genera. Collectively, our results further show that high-temperature continental hydrothermal systems harbor a highly diverse virome and shed light on the evolution of archaeal viruses.

Virus-borne mini-CRISPR arrays are involved in interviral conflicts

CRISPR-Cas immunity is at the forefront of antivirus defense in bacteria and archaea and specifically targets viruses carrying protospacers matching the spacers catalogued in the CRISPR arrays. Here, we perform deep sequencing of the CRISPRome-all spacers contained in a microbiome-associated with hyperthermophilic archaea of the order Sulfolobales recovered directly from an environmental sample and from enrichment cultures established in the laboratory. The 25 million CRISPR spacers sequenced from a single sampling site dwarf the diversity of spacers from all available Sulfolobales isolates and display complex temporal dynamics. Comparison of closely related virus strains shows that CRISPR targeting drives virus genome evolution. Furthermore, we show that some archaeal viruses carry mini-CRISPR arrays with 1-2 spacers and preceded by leader sequences but devoid of cas genes. Closely related viruses present in the same population carry spacers against each other. Targeting by these virus-borne spacers represents a distinct mechanism of heterotypic superinfection exclusion and appears to promote archaeal virus speciation.

A packing for A-form DNA in an icosahedral virus

Studies on viruses infecting archaea living in the most extreme environments continue to show a remarkable diversity of structures, suggesting that the sampling continues to be very sparse. We have used electron cryo-microscopy to study at 3.7-Å resolution the structure of the Sulfolobus polyhedral virus 1 (SPV1), which was originally isolated from a hot, acidic spring in Beppu, Japan. The 2 capsid proteins with variant single jelly-roll folds form pentamers and hexamers which assemble into a T = 43 icosahedral shell. In contrast to tailed icosahedral double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses infecting bacteria and archaea, and herpesviruses infecting animals and humans, where naked DNA is packed under very high pressure due to the repulsion between adjacent layers of DNA, the circular dsDNA in SPV1 is fully covered with a viral protein forming a nucleoprotein filament with attractive interactions between layers. Most strikingly, we have been able to show that the DNA is in an A-form, as it is in the filamentous viruses infecting hyperthermophilic acidophiles. Previous studies have suggested that DNA is in the B-form in bacteriophages, and our study is a direct visualization of the structure of DNA in an icosahedral virus.

A Review on Viral Metagenomics in Extreme Environments

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities in the biosphere, and have the ability to infect Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes. The virome is estimated to be at least ten times more abundant than the microbiome with 10⁷ viruses per milliliter and 10⁹ viral particles per gram in marine waters and sediments or soils, respectively. Viruses represent a largely unexplored genetic diversity, having an important role in the genomic plasticity of their hosts. Moreover, they also play a significant role in the dynamics of microbial populations. In recent years, metagenomic approaches have gained increasing popularity in the study of environmental viromes, offering the possibility of extending our knowledge related to both virus diversity and their functional characterization. Extreme environments represent an interesting source of both microbiota and their virome due to their particular physicochemical conditions, such as very high or very low temperatures and >1 atm hydrostatic pressures, among others. Despite the fact that some progress has been made in our understanding of the ecology of the microbiota in these habitats, few metagenomic studies have described the viromes present in extreme ecosystems. Thus, limited advances have been made in our understanding of the virus community structure in extremophilic ecosystems, as well as in their biotechnological potential. In this review, we critically analyze recent progress in metagenomic based approaches to explore the viromes in extreme environments and we discuss the potential for new discoveries, as well as methodological challenges and perspectives.