Name: Mya Breitbart

Email: mya@marine.usf.edu

Author: Mya Breitbart

Author affiliation: University of South Florida

Abstract title: The Surprisingly (High/Low) Diversity of Marine Viruses? Can We Decide Which?

Absstract:

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities in the oceans and play important roles in biogeochemical cycling, horizontal gene transfer, and defining bacterial community composition. Despite their abundance and importance, there is still a lot we don't understand about the diversity and biogeography of marine viruses. PCR-based studies reveal a high level of diversity in individual samples, even within restricted viral phylogenetic groups. Combined with the frequent discovery of novel virus groups, this suggests that we still have a long way to go before understanding the extent of marine viral diversity. In contrast, metagenomic studies suggest significant overlap in viruses found throughout the world's oceans, and some viral genes have been demonstrated to have extremely wide biogeographical distributions. This presentation will summarize recent findings about marine viral diversity, and attempt to answer the question posed in the title, namely, how diverse is the global marine virome?