Abstract
Viruses are ubiquitous albeit individually constrained by host-range. Less well understood are environmental limitations on virus proliferation. To investigate estuarine viral diversity, niche constraints, and traits of environmental adaptation, we analyse metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data from an estuarine salinity gradient, including water and sediment. We then expand our analysis to globally-distributed viral genomes. Viral distributions vary by estuary habitat, reflecting prokaryote community patterns, and highlighting that virus-host interactions are strongly influenced by environment. Viral lineages, up until approximately the rank of genus, are largely partitioned by ecological niche based on factors such as salinity and the aquatic-terrestrial divide. Across habitat boundaries, viruses feature osmoadaptive traits similar to their prokaryote hosts. These include slightly elevated ratios of acidic to basic amino acids and decreased protein isoelectric points at higher salinities, particularly in virus major tail and capsid proteins, which are not solely explained by reliance on host machinery. Further studies are needed to determine the primary driver of these modifications in viruses (e.g. environment or host) and whether these traits restrict virus distributions beyond host-range limitation. Overall, our findings indicate that successful proliferations of viruses into distinct biomes (e.g. freshwater, saline, terrestrial) are rare, with viruses constrained to specific ecological niches.
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Acknowledgements
We thank G. Lear for contributions to the sampling plan, D. Waite, C. Astudillo-Garcia, G. Lear, J.S. Boey and O.E. Mosley for assisting in sample collection, D. Waite for assistance with sample preparation and data processing, and I. Hay for guidance with protein structural prediction and analyses (University of Auckland). High-performance computing facilities were provided by New Zealand eScience Infrastructure.
Funding
K.M.H. discloses support for the research and publication of this work from Genomics Aotearoa (projects 1806 and 2101), a Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment research platform. M.H., E.G., H.S.T., and J.L.G. declare no relevant funding.
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Hoggard, M., Gios, E., Tee, H.S. et al. DNA viruses are constrained to ecological niches and share similar environmental adaptations with hosts.
Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73439-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73439-9
Source: Ecology - nature.com
