The giant viruses that orchestrate life in the polar regions

By Thomas M. Pitot, Chercheur postdoctoral en microbiologie, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
Catherine Girard, Professeure-Chercheure en microbiologie, Université Laval

Viruses play a major role in the functioning of ecosystems. They profoundly influence the dynamics of microbial communities, flow of matter and global biogeochemical cycles. Yet despite their abundance and ecological importance, many of them have long remained invisible to science.

This gap is largely due to the methods environmental virologists have used —isolating viruses by filtering out larger organisms from natural samples.

This approach was effective for isolating most viruses we knew about.…

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