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Paleological And Ecological Impacts Of Virus Silicification, James Robert Laidler
Paleological And Ecological Impacts Of Virus Silicification, James Robert Laidler
Dissertations and Theses
Silicification of organisms in silica-depositing environments can impact both their ecology and their presence in the fossil record. Although microbes have been silicified under laboratory and environmental conditions, viruses had not been, prior to this work. Bacteriophage T4 was successfully silicified under laboratory conditions that closely simulated those found in silica-depositing hot springs. Virus morphology was maintained during the short period of silicification (48 hours), and a clear elemental signature of silicon and phosphorus was detected by energy-dispersive X-ray spectrophotometry (EDX). However, the EDX signature of silicified virus was not sufficiently distinct from that of cell membrane or phosphate minerals …
The Boiling Springs Lake Metavirome: Charting The Viral Sequence-Space Of An Extreme Environment Microbial Ecosystem, Geoffrey Scott Diemer
The Boiling Springs Lake Metavirome: Charting The Viral Sequence-Space Of An Extreme Environment Microbial Ecosystem, Geoffrey Scott Diemer
Dissertations and Theses
Viruses are the most abundant organisms on Earth, yet their collective evolutionary history, biodiversity and functional capacity is not well understood. Viral metagenomics offers a potential means of establishing a more comprehensive view of virus diversity and evolution, as vast amounts of new sequence data becomes available for comparative analysis.
Metagenomic DNA from virus-sized particles (smaller than 0.2 microns in diameter) was isolated from approximately 20 liters of sediment obtained from Boiling Springs Lake (BSL) and sequenced. BSL is a large, acidic hot-spring (with a pH of 2.2, and temperatures ranging from 50°C to 96°C) located in Lassen Volcanic National …