Community post

Before now, no virus has been reported to infect ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) from the phylum Thaumarchaeota (ubiquitous marine archaea). However, a new paper by Jong-Geol Kim (Chungbuk National Univ.) and colleagues describes the isolation and characterization of three Nitrosopumilus spindle-shaped viruses that infect AOA. Curiously, viral replication inhibits AOA growth and reduces ammonia oxidation and nitrite reduction, but does not degrade the host chromosome or decrease cell counts.