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Article Type

Review

Subject Area

Microbiology

Abstract

Viruses are the most plentiful microorganisms in the ecosystem and exhibit excessive diversity in relations to infection cycle, host specificity and size. Since the discovery of great viral distribution in marine ecosystems, the ecological significance of viruses to marine environment has become gradually evident. Lytic viruses trigger lysis of the host cell to give the new progeny and thus readdress nutrients from higher to lower trophic levels. Consequently, marine viruses exhibit direct or indirect influence on the capacity of carbon sequestration, exchange of gases in the ocean and biogeochemical cycles in addition to affecting microbial population dynamics. Marine viruses are able to affect the feedback of oceans on climate alteration. Wide spatial-scale and long-term investigations enriched knowledge of virus–host dynamics in the oceans and could allow the integration of the viruses into models of forthcoming ocean climate and rise the prediction accuracy of the climate change. Recent researches have revealed a widespread spectrum of new features in marine viruses that may afford chief biotechnological advances and potentials in a number of diverse fields like cosmetics, material science and medicine. It will become progressively significant to unravel how environmental issues control host-virus interactions and virus dynamics and thus affect the actions that viruses do in the marine ecosystem. Reviews on marine viruses have limitedly discussed the effect of the environment on viral ecology. Thus, the aim of the current review was to donate to the progress of marine viral ecology, through the integration of available data to provide a framework for future research creativities in viral ecology and promise applications.

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