MEFISTO

Impact of viruses on marine microbial assemblages using virus-host models and metagenomics

Reference: CTM2013-43767-P
Centre: Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC)
Periode: 1st of January de 2014 to 31th December 2016
ACRONYM: MEFISTO (respond to the different approaches used in the project: Metagenomics, Phage-Fish, Viral-Tag).

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Viruses are considered key elements in the functioning of microbial food webs and biogeochemical cycles in the sea. Since the 90s, the knowledge of their abundance, dynamics and their role as mortality factors for bacteria and protists has been increasing. However, these studies are conducted at the whole community level and it is still difficult to detect the in situ abundance of a particular virus and its specific interaction with their hosts. One could therefore say that the study of the impact of viruses on microbial communities has been addressed from a "black box " perspective without taking into account the specific compositions of viruses and their hosts.

The global objective of MEFISTO is to identify and quantify virus-host interactions at specific levels, both in the laboratory and in the sea, to better understand the role of viruses within microbial food webs and its contribution in biogeochemical cycles.