Metatranscriptomic Profiling of Viral Diversity in Aquatic Environments with a Focus on Microalgal Viruses

Metatranscriptomics across five Finnish freshwater sites and one coastal marine sample recovered 399 viral vOTUs, including 285 RNA-virus vOTUs linked to diverse hosts.

• Why it matters: Freshwater microeukaryote productivity is well known, but their associated RNA viruses are less characterized than marine counterparts, leaving ecological diversity and host links unclear.
• What they did: The study profiled viral RNA from these aquatic samples, recovered 399 vOTUs, and used RdRp-based phylogeny plus IMG/VR v4 whole-genome comparisons to classify two Vantaanjoki river vOTUs as a candidate Vandarnavirus genus within Marnaviridae.
• The result: The two Vantaanjoki vOTUs form a strongly supported lineage outside recognized Marnaviridae genera and show genetic similarity to picorna-like sequences from multiple freshwater-associated metatranscriptomes, highlighting freshwater habitats as under-sampled reservoirs.

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