Abstract:

Viruses, existing widely in terrestrial ecosystems, affect the composition, abundance, activity, and functioning of microbial communities and play important roles in the biogeochemical element cycle in various ecosystems. The community, function, and succession of viruses have become an issue of global concern. However, recent research mainly focused on marine viruses and neglected soil viruses, especially soil RNA viruses. In this paper, we systematically elaborated the research status about soil viruses and discuss the mechanism of virus affecting elemental cycles. We found that human activity would change the distribution of soil viruses. The family of Phycodnaviridae is mainly detected in natural soils, e.g., forest soils, while the families of Siphoviridae, Myoviridae, Podoviridae, and Inoviridae predominate in the community of soil viruses collected from niches with different human activities, e.g., agricultural soil and urban soils. There is a higher diversity and abundance of virus in forest soil compared with those in agricultural soil. Some viruses related to diseases, e.g., Poxviride and Herpesviridae, were detected in various soils, indicating the risk of soil viruses for human health. Moreover, we found that human activities would increase the potential risk of virus in soils. For example, the abundance of Herpesviridae is significantly higher in urban soil than that in forest soil and agriculture soil. As we all know, soil viruses would regulate biogeochemical cycles, for example, carbon and nitrogen cycling, directly (e.g., functional genes and auxiliary metabolic genes) and indirectly (e.g., through affecting microbial community, activity, and abundance). We suggest that future studies about soil viruses should explore the responses of soil viruses to global climate changes, urbanization, and human activities. These investigations would provide scientific bases for soil fertility and environmental quality improvement and protection of human health.

Key words: virus, human activity, microbiome

摘要：

病毒广泛存在于不同生态系统，影响微生物群落组成、丰度、活性及功能，在生物地球化学元素循环过程中发挥着重要作用。病毒在各生态系统中的群落组成、功能及进化演替是目前生态学的研究热点。然而，目前对病毒生态分布的研究主要集中于海洋等水生生态系统，对陆地生态系统中病毒的研究仍十分缺乏，尤其是RNA病毒。基于此，该文系统分析了土壤病毒的研究现状，探讨了病毒参与土壤碳氮循环的相关机制。研究表明，人为干扰将影响土壤病毒的分布：藻状DNA病毒科（Phycodnaviridae）主要存在自然土壤，而农田及城市土壤中病毒组成主要包括长尾噬菌体科（Siphoviridae）、肌尾噬菌体科（Myoviridae）、短尾噬菌体科（Podoviridae）、微小噬菌体科（Microviridae）和丝杆病毒科（Inoviridae）；相对于农田土壤，森林土壤中的病毒具有更高多样性和丰度。此外，痘病毒科（Poxviridae）和疱疹病毒科（Herpesviridae）等多种与人类疾病相关的病毒在土壤中被检出，且城市绿地中的疱疹病毒科的丰度显著高于森林和农田土壤，预示着土壤病毒对人群健康存在一定威胁，且人为活动将增加其健康风险。土壤病毒驱动土壤元素循环，能够直接（如编码基因直接代谢和辅助代谢基因）或者间接（如调节微生物群落、丰度和活性）影响土壤生态系统中生物地球化学循环过程。综上，土壤病毒在陆地生态系统中发挥着重要作用；全球气候变化、城市化过程及不断加强的人为活动条件下的土壤病毒的响应将是后续土壤病毒的研究热点，相关研究将为土壤肥力提升、环境质量提高及保障人群健康等方面提供重要的科学理论依据。

关键词: 病毒, 人为活动, 微生物群系