Expansion of the global RNA virome reveals diverse clades of bacteriophages

This deposit is intended to contain the various data generated as part of the RNA Virus in MetaTranscriptomes project ("RVMT"). This initial version is released ahead of time, near the time of submission, in hopes of providing a long lasting resource for the general scientific community. Note well - The authors listed in this initial version release are a partial list only. The RNA Virus in MetaTranscriptomes consortium is a project with over 90 researches from various institutions (see below).

High-throughput RNA sequencing offers broad opportunities to explore the Earth RNA virome. Mining 5,150 diverse metatranscriptomes uncovered >2.5 million RNA virus contigs. Analysis of >330,000 RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRPs) shows that this expansion corresponds to a 5-fold increase of the known RNA virus diversity. Gene content analysis revealed multiple protein domains previously not found in RNA viruses and implicated in virus-host interactions. Extended RdRP phylogeny supports the monophyly of the five established phyla and reveals two putative additional bacteriophage phyla and numerous putative additional classes and orders. The dramatically expanded phylum Lenarviricota, consisting of bacterial and related eukaryotic viruses, now accounts for a third of the RNA virome. Identification of CRISPR spacer matches and bacteriolytic proteins suggests that subsets of picobirnaviruses and partitiviruses, previously associated with eukaryotes, infect prokaryotic hosts.

The RNA Virus in metatranscriptomes consortium:
Adrienne B. Narrowe, Alexander J. Probst, Alexander Sczyrba, Annegret Kohler, Armand Séguin, Ashley Shade, Barbara J. Campbell, Björn D. Lindahl, Brandi Kiel Reese, Breanna M. Roque, Chris DeRito, Colin Averill, Daniel Cullen, David A. C. Beck, David A. Walsh, David M. Ward, Dongying Wu, Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh, Eoin L. Brodie, Erica B. Young, Erik A. Lilleskov, Federico J. Castillo, Francis M. Martin, Gary R. LeCleir, Graeme T. Attwood, Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz, Holly M. Simon, Ian Hewson, Igor V. Grigoriev, James M. Tiedje, Janet K. Jansson, Janey Lee, Jean S. VanderGheynst, Jeff Dangl, Jeff S. Bowman, Jeffrey L. Blanchard, Jennifer L. Bowen, Jiangbing Xu, Jillian F. Banfield, Jody W Deming, Joel E. Kostka, John M. Gladden, Josephine Z Rapp, Joshua Sharpe, Katherine D. McMahon, Kathleen K. Treseder, Kay D. Bidle, Kelly C. Wrighton, Kimberlee Thamatrakoln, Klaus Nusslein, Laura K. Meredith, Lucia Ramirez, Marc Buee, Marcel Huntemann, Marina G. Kalyuzhnaya, Mark P Waldrop, Matthew B Sullivan, Matthew O. Schrenk, Matthias Hess, Michael A. Vega, Michelle A. O’Malley, Monica Medina, Naomi E. Gilbert, Nathalie Delherbe, Olivia U. Mason, Paul Dijkstra, Peter F. Chuckran, Petr Baldrian, Philippe Constant, Ramunas Stepanauskas, Rebecca A. Daly, Regina Lamendella, Robert J Gruninger, Robert M. McKay, Samuel Hylander, Sarah L. Lebeis, Sarah P Esser, Silvia G. Acinas, Steven S. Wilhelm, Steven W. Singer, Susannah S. Tringe, Tanja Woyke, TBK Reddy, Terrence H. Bell, Thomas Mock, Tim McAllister, Vera Thiel, Vincent J. Denef, Wen-Tso Liu, Willm Martens-Habbena, Xiao-Jun Allen Liu, Zachary S. Cooper, Zhong Wang. For the full list of authors and related information, please see the spreadsheet tittle "Table S9 - Consortium coauthorship" available in this collection in the folder named "Tables".