A holistic genome dataset of bacteria, archaea and viruses of the Pearl River estuary

Estuaries are one of the most important coastal ecosystems. While microbiomes and viromes have been separately investigated in some estuaries, few studies holistically deciphered the genomes and connections of viruses and their microbial hosts along an estuarine salinity gradient. Here we applied deep metagenomic sequencing on microbial and viral communities in surface waters of the Pearl River estuary, one of China's largest estuaries with strong anthropogenic impacts. Overall, 1,205 non-redundant prokaryotic genomes with >= 50% completeness and <= 10% contamination, and 78,502 non-redundant viral-like genomes were generated from samples of three size fractions and five salinity levels. Phylogenomic analysis and taxonomy classification show that majority of these estuarine prokaryotic and viral genomes are novel at species level according to public databases. Potential connections between the microbial and viral populations were further investigated by host-virus matching. These combined microbial and viral genomes provide an important complement of global marine genome datasets and should greatly facilitate our understanding of microbe-virus interactions, evolution and their implications in estuarine ecosystems.

Automated summary

This study conducted metagenomic sequencing on microbial and viral communities in the Pearl River estuary, one of China's largest estuaries, revealing that many of the microbial and viral genomes in this estuary are novel at the species level. These genomes provide important additions to global marine genome datasets and will greatly enhance our understanding of microbe-virus interactions, evolution, and their implications in estuarine ecosystems.