环境病毒的宿主鉴定技术进展

Advances in host prediction approaches for environmental phages

摘要:

病毒是地球上丰度最高的微小生命粒子，通过调控宿主的群落结构、介导宿主死亡和参与水平基因转移等方式影响着生物地球化学循环和地球生命演化。近年来，宏基因组学的发展实现了在全球尺度上对环境病毒的大规模探索和研究，大量新的病毒基因组被发掘，病毒在全球生态过程和生物地球化学循环中的角色和贡献也得到进一步认知。病毒在环境中的重要作用是通过感染宿主实现的。然而，环境病毒的宿主鉴定工作远落后于环境病毒基因组测序研究。本文综述了目前病毒宿主鉴定的主要技术及其优缺点和应用场景，总结了病毒的宿主鉴定在病毒生态学研究和生物工程领域的重要价值，并初步展望了未来病毒宿主鉴定技术的发展方向。

关键词:病毒;宿主鉴定;感染关系

Abstract:

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth. They play an important role in biogeochemical cycles and the evolution of life by regulating host community structure, causing mortality, and mediating genetic exchange. In recent years, the development of metagenomics has enabled the global-scale study of environmental viruses. A large number of novel viral genomes have been uncovered, and the roles and contributions of viruses in ecological processes and biogeochemical cycles have been recognized. The important role of viruses in ecosystem is mainly dependent on the infecting host. However, host prediction of environmental viruses has lagged far behind the studies of environmental viral genomics. This review aims to provide the latest knowledge of the main approaches for virus-host prediction, their pros and cons, and application, to reveal the importance of host prediction in the ecological research and bioengineering of viruses, and to present an outlook on the future development of host prediction approaches.

Key words:virus;host prediction;infectious relationship