Breaking the Ice: A Review of Phages in Polar Ecosystems

2023 · doi:10.32942/x2tg7j
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This review synthesizes current knowledge on polar phages, highlighting their diversity, unique genetic characteristics, and crucial roles in regulating bacterial populations and nutrient cycling in Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-14 · read from full text ⓘ

This paper is a review of bacteriophages from polar ecosystems, integrating evidence from metagenomic studies, phage isolation experiments, and virus-like particle abundance and lysis-rate data to describe phage diversity, genetic features, and ecological roles in Arctic and Antarctic environments. Across these sources, the authors report high phage diversity with distinctive genetic characteristics, novel phage–host interactions from isolation work, and indications that phages regulate bacterial populations and nutrient cycling. A key caveat emphasized is that polar phages remain relatively understudied due to limited ecosystem access and low biomass, which constrains sampling. This paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect and replicate within bacterial hosts, playing a significant role in regulating microbial populations and ecosystem dynamics. However, phages from extreme environments such as polar regions remain relatively understudied due to challenges like restricted ecosystem access and low biomass. Understanding the diversity, structure, and functions of polar phages is crucial for advancing our knowledge of the microbial ecology and biogeochemistry of these environments. In this review, we will explore the current state of knowledge on phages from the Arctic and Antarctic, focusing on insights gained from -omic studies, phage isolation, and virus-like particle abundance data. Metagenomic studies of polar environments have revealed a high diversity of phages with unique genetic characteristics, providing insights into their evolutionary and ecological roles. Phage isolation studies have identified novel phage-host interactions and contributed to the discovery of new phage species. Virus-like particle abundance and lysis rate data, on the other hand, have highlighted the importance of phages in regulating bacterial populations and nutrient cycling in polar environments. Overall, this review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge about polar phages, and by synthesizing these different sources of information, we can better understand the diversity, dynamics, and functions of polar phages in the context of ongoing climate change, which will help to predict how polar ecosystems and residing phages may respond to future environmental perturbations.
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Abstract

Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect and replicate within bacterial hosts, playing a significant role in regulating microbial populations and ecosystem dynamics. However, phages from extreme environments such as polar regions remain relatively understudied due to challenges like restricted ecosystem access and low biomass. Understanding the diversity, structure, and functions of polar phages is crucial for advancing our knowledge of the microbial ecology and biogeochemistry of these environments. In this review, we will explore the current state of knowledge on phages from the Arctic and Antarctic, focusing on insights gained from -omic studies, phage isolation, and virus-like particle abundance data. Metagenomic studies of polar environments have revealed a high diversity of phages with unique genetic characteristics, providing insights into their evolutionary and ecological roles. Phage isolation studies have identified novel phage-host interactions and contributed to the discovery of new phage species. Virus-like particle abundance and lysis rate data, on the other hand, have highlighted the importance of phages in regulating bacterial populations and nutrient cycling in polar environments. Overall, this review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge about polar phages, and by synthesizing these different sources of information, we can better understand the diversity, dynamics, and functions of polar phages in the context of ongoing climate change, which will help to predict how polar ecosystems and residing phages may respond to future environmental perturbations. DOI https://doi.org/10.32942/X2TG7J Subjects Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Marine Biology, Microbiology

Keywords

Viruses, Antarctic, Arctic, Cryosphere, Cold adaptation, AMG, VLP, Permafrost, Cryoconite holes, Host, Antarctic, Arctic, Cryosphere, Cold adaptation, AMG, VLP, Permafrost, Cryoconite holes, Host Dates Published: 2023-05-28 22:41 Last Updated: 2023-11-20 23:14 Older Versions License CC-By Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Additional Metadata Conflict of interest statement: None Data and Code Availability Statement: Not applicable Language: English Metrics Views: 1639 Downloads: 1348

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