The Viruses in Soil - Potential Roles, Activities, and Impacts

Soil biomes encompass a number of diverse organisms. The interactions of viruses with organisms from all of these groups play essential roles in the activities of the latter, and so in the aforementioned soil functions. This chapter examines the understanding of virus and phage abundance, and the diversities, evolution, and putative roles of these agents in soil ecosystems. The methods used to extract the viruses from soil particles may have affected and possibly “biased” the observed soil virus diversities. The spatial structure of soil generates multiple microhabitats, establishing diverse niches for members of the microbiome. Phages may play major roles as promoters of the structure and “health” of bacterial biofilms. In soil settings, such biofilms are often found on surfaces, constituting key structures of the soil microbiome. Given the fact that soil viruses—phages play fundamental roles in the ecologies of their hosts, key soil processes may be affected, at the microscale level.