Bacteriophage - in The Environment

In The Environment

Metagenomics has allowed the in-water detection of bacteriophages that was not possible previously. These investigations revealed phages are much more abundant in the water column of both freshwater and marine habitats than previously thought, and they can cause significant mortality of bacterioplankton. Methods in phage community ecology have been developed to assess phage-induced mortality of bacterioplankton and its role for food web process and biogeochemical cycle to genetically fingerprint phage communities or populations and estimate viral biodiversity by metagenomics. The lysis of bacteria by phages releases organic carbon that was previously particulate (cells) into dissolved forms, which makes the carbon more available to other organisms. Phages are not only the most abundant biological entities but also probably also the most diverse ones. The majority of the sequence data obtained from phage communities have no equivalents in databases. These data and other detailed analyses indicate phage-specific genes and ecological traits are much more frequent than previously thought. To reveal the meaning of this genetic and ecological versatility, studies have to be performed with communities and at spatiotemporal scales relevant for microorganisms.

Bacteriophages have also been used in hydrological tracing and modelling in river systems, especially where surface water and groundwater interactions occur. The use of phages is preferred to the more conventional dye marker because they are significantly less absorbed when passing through ground waters and they are readily detected at very low concentrations.