It's truly astounding how viruses can thrive in the harshest conditions, enduring the frigid permafrost of ten-thousand-year-old ice and the scorching heat of thousand-metre-deep hydrothermal vents. Yet, maintaining a mere houseplant can feel like an uphill battle. As you contemplate playing soothing tunes for your struggling Monstera, scientists have unveiled an extraordinary discovery.
Exploring sediment retrieved from the depths of the Mariana Trench, researchers stumbled upon a previously unknown virus that had adapted to this inhospitable environment. At an astonishing depth of 8,900 metres, it's the deepest location ever recorded for a bacteriophage, a type of virus that infects bacteria. This tenacious virus has been endearingly named vB_HmeY_H4907.
The newly found phage targets bacteria from the Halomonas family, which inhabit the deep ocean near hydrothermal vents on the seafloor, where scalding mineral-rich water constantly emanates. Interestingly, another member of this bacterial family, H. titanicae, is anticipated to play a role in the eventual deterioration of the sunken Titanic by 2030.
While bacteriophages are thought to be the most abundant life forms on Earth, discovering one at such extreme depths is still remarkable. Genomic analysis has also revealed its presence in oceans across the world.
This virus shares structural similarities with its host, reproducing without causing the bacterial cell's demise, a process known as lysogeny. In contrast, viruses that follow the lytic cycle use their bacterial hosts for replication and eventually burst out of the cells in a manner reminiscent of the movie "Alien."
This discovery significantly advances our understanding of the diversity, evolution, and genomic characteristics of deep-sea phages and their interactions with host bacteria. The identification of more viruses in extreme environments adds valuable chapters to our understanding of Earth's virosphere.
