Eco-evolutionary Dynamics of Prokaryotic and Viral Communities in a Glacial Foreland

Eco-evolutionary Dynamics of Prokaryotic and Viral Communities in a Glacial Foreland | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Eco-evolutionary Dynamics of Prokaryotic and Viral Communities in a Glacial Foreland Jian-Qiang Su, Hu Liao, Jian Li, Chen-Song Duan, Hong-Xia Cui, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6681177/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Glacial retreat zones offer an ideal natural laboratory setting to explore how soil viral and microbial communities adapt to ecosystem succession from seemingly barren substrates, particularly the evolutionary strategies underpinning microbial-viral coexistence, functional interdependencies, and the dynamics of cross-kingdom interaction. Here, we conducted a comprehensive metagenomic and viromic expedition across a 130-year glacial foreland chronosequence located on the Tibetan plateau. We identified 404 microbial operational taxonomic units (mOTUs) from metagenome-assembled genomes and 61,394 viral OTUs (vOTUs), revealing complex interaction networks involving 161 mOTUs and 3,095 vOTUs. Diverse sulfur-oxidizing (S→SO42-) bacteria (SOB) with complete conserved Dsr gene cluster (5’-DsrA-DsrB-DsrE-DsrF-DsrH-DsrC-DsrM-DsrK-fdhB/gltD-(hyp)-ttrB-dmsC-DsrN-DsrR-3’) were enriched in the early stage (0-40 year), whereas ammonia-oxidizing (NH4+→NO2-) bacterial lineage were flourished in the late stage of glacial retreat (41-130 year), suggesting the SOB facilitate the organic carbon storage and carbonates digestion during the early stage of glacial retreat. Core genes (dsrAB) in sulfur-cycling rDsr clusters exhibited significantly higher genetic diversity (p < 0.05) than accessory genes, reflecting environmental selection for metabolic plasticity. Microdiversity profiling further indicated that glacial retreat imposes divergent selection pressures: bacterial adaptation correlated with taxonomic hierarchy and functional guilds, while viral evolution depended on genome size and lifestyle. Our study dissects the intricate eco-evolutionary patterns governing microbial-viral interactions in deglaciating ecosystems, providing genomic insights into their adaptive resilience during climate-driven ecosystem succession. Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology/Microbial ecology Biological sciences/Microbiology/Environmental microbiology/Soil microbiology Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Biogeochemistry/Element cycles Biological sciences/Microbiology/Virology/Metagenomics Glacial foreland Viromes sulfur-oxidizing bacteria ammonia-oxidating bacteria Microdiversity Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files supplenmentarytable.xlsx All supplementary tables supplentaryfigures.docx All supplementary figures Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6681177","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":465979330,"identity":"e7ed390e-cdbb-4ca1-8472-9e5bb34b5c77","order_by":0,"name":"Jian-Qiang 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