题记：大地承载万物，宏观的生物显而易见，而众多的微生物却神秘地栖息在土壤里。“在微观层面上，土壤中充满了与植物合作的真菌和细菌等微生物”。然而，这些细菌常常被病毒感染；而且病毒也很智慧，它们会将自己的特殊基因整合到细菌体内，赋予细菌某种超能力，目的是为了自己更好地生存。同时，病毒也很聪明，它们不会杀死细菌，而是让它们活着，细菌活着，病毒就会受益。不知这是否也算是一种共生现象？病毒和细菌可以共存，由此想到，新冠病毒、癌细胞和人类是否也能友好共存呢？

Exploring Underground Ecosystems: Scientists Identify New Soil Viruses

探索地下生态系统：科学家发现了新的土壤病毒

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Soil is teeming with viruses. Credit: Stephanie King | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

土壤中充满了病毒。 图片来源：斯蒂芬妮·金 | 太平洋西北国家实验室

The unsung hero of our lives is soil. It nourishes crops to give humans with food, drains rainfall into aquifers, and serves as a habitat for a variety of organisms. On a microscopic level, soil is teeming with microorganisms such as fungus and bacteria that cooperate with plants. Despite being such a crucial aspect of our existence, little is known about what lies beneath the Earth’s surface.

太平洋西北国家实验室科学家发现新的土壤病毒

我们生活中的无名英雄是土壤。它滋养作物，为人类提供食物，将降雨排入含水层，并作为各种生物的栖息地。在微观层面上，土壤中充满了与植物合作的真菌和细菌等微生物。尽管是我们存在的一个如此重要的方面，但人们对地球表面之下的东西知之甚少。

Scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) employed bioinformatics and deep sequencing to detect soil viruses and better understand their roles in the Earth in new research. Most of these viruses infect bacteria and are consequently assumed to serve a key role in microbial population maintenance.

太平洋西北国家实验室 (PNNL) 的科学家利用生物信息学和深度测序来检测土壤病毒，并在新研究中更好地了解它们在地球中的作用。大多数这些病毒感染细菌，因此被认为在微生物种群维持中起关键作用。

“Viruses are abundant in nature,” said Janet Jansson, chief scientist for biology and PNNL Laboratory Fellow. “Because there are so many of them in every soil sample, identifying different viruses becomes a challenge.”

“病毒在自然界中很丰富，”生物学首席科学家兼 PNNL 实验室研究员珍妮特·詹森 (Janet Jansson) 说。“因为每个土壤样本中都有这么多病毒，识别不同的病毒成为一项挑战。”

Jansson worked with Computational Scientist Ruonan Wu and Earth Scientist and Microbiome Science Team Leader Kirsten Hofmockel in the Biological Sciences Division at PNNL to meet this challenge.

Jansson 与 PNNL 生物科学部的计算科学家Ruonan Wu 以及地球科学家和微生物组科学团队负责人 Kirsten Hofmockel 合作应对这一挑战。

Along with collaborators from Washington State University; Oregon Heath & Science University; Iowa State University; and EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility at PNNL; the PNNL scientists collected soil samples from grasslands in Washington, Iowa, and Kansas and began a deep dive into the soil composition. They leveraged the massive DNA sequencing abilities of the Joint Genome Institute, computing power of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, and multi-omics expertise from EMSL to unearth previously unknown soil viruses. Their results were published in mBio and Communications Biology.

与华盛顿州立大学、俄勒冈健康科学大学、 爱荷华州立大学、 和 EMSL、环境分子科学实验室、PNNL 能源部科学用户设施办公室的合作者一起，PNNL 的科学家们从华盛顿、爱荷华州和堪萨斯州的草原上收集了土壤样本，并开始深入研究土壤成分。 他们利用联合基因组研究所的大规模DNA 测序能力、国家能源研究科学计算中心的计算能力以及EMSL 的多组学专业知识来发掘以前未知的土壤病毒。他们的结果发表在MBIO 和COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY 上。

From left to right: Janet Jansson, Ruonan Wu, and Kirsten Hofmockel pioneer research on soil viruses. Credit: Shannon Colson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

从左到右：Janet Jansson、Ruonan Wu 和 Kirsten Hofmockel （土壤病毒研究的先驱）。图片来源：香农科尔森 | 太平洋西北国家实验室

Because each site receives a varied amount of rainfall, the scientists picked Washington, Iowa, and Kansas for their soil samples. Eastern Washington is substantially drier than Iowa, whereas Kansas lies in the middle between the two in terms of soil moisture.

针对不同气候的不同病毒

由于每个地点的降雨量不同，科学家们选择了华盛顿、爱荷华和堪萨斯作为土壤样本。华盛顿东部比爱荷华州干燥得多，而堪萨斯州在土壤湿度方面位于两者之间。

“We chose to take samples from places with different amounts of soil moisture to see if this made a difference in the types and amounts of viruses there,” said Wu. “Wetter soil contains more bacteria, and many soil viruses infect bacteria.”

“我们选择从土壤水分含量不同的地方采集样本，看看这是否会对那里的病毒类型和数量产生影响，”吴说。 “潮湿的土壤含有更多的细菌，许多土壤病毒会感染细菌。”

The scientists noticed that certain viruses are much more abundant in dry soil than wet soil.

科学家们注意到，某些病毒在干燥土壤中的数量比在潮湿土壤中要多得多。

“In drier climates, there tend to be fewer, but more diverse, microbes in the soil,” said Wu. “The relative scarcity of bacterial hosts means that it’s in the virus’s best interest to keep the host alive.”

“在更干燥的气候中，土壤中的微生物往往更少，但更多样化，”吴说。“细菌宿主的相对稀缺意味着让宿主存活符合病毒的最大利益。”

The researchers also discovered that in drier soil, viruses were more likely to contain special genes that they could potentially transfer to their bacterial hosts.

研究人员还发现，在较干燥的土壤中，病毒更有可能含有特殊基因，这些基因可能会转移到细菌宿主身上。

“These genes could potentially give their bacterial hosts ‘superpowers’” said Jansson. “These virus genes could be passed to their bacterial hosts to help them survive in dry soils.”

“这些基因可能会赋予它们的细菌宿主‘超能力’，”Jansson 说。“这些病毒基因可以传递给它们的细菌宿主，以帮助它们在干燥的土壤中生存。”

Though more research is necessary to better understand the role of these special viral genes, the possibility that they could be useful to bacteria living in the soil is exciting. These genes could be useful to bacteria by increasing their ability to recycle carbon and thus increase soil health.

尽管需要更多的研究来更好地了解这些特殊病毒基因的作用，但它们可能对生活在土壤中的细菌有用的可能性令人兴奋。这些基因可以通过提高细菌循环碳的能力从而增加土壤健康来对细菌有用。