Dissecting the metal resistance genes contributed by virome from mining-affected metal contaminated soils

Virus-borne auxiliary genes have been demonstrated to influence their hosts’ characteristics and flexibility, resulting in an elevated ability withstand diverse conditions competition. However, the research on soil viral community its influencing factors is not extensive. The effects of bacterium-phage co-evolution metal contaminated environment yet be fully understood. In our research, numerous with conserved functional residues/motifs working detoxifying heavy metals were pinpointed virome recovered from 58 metagenomic samples mineral area, including tellurite resistance (e.g., terC , terD ), copper copC, copA arsenate arsC ). Moreover, proteins involved key processes nutrient uptake metabolism, cellular function, polysaccharides production biomineralization also detected, which may contribute response microbial stress. Our showed that viruses helped hosts acquire novel metal-resistance abilities through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) during adaptation challenging metal-rich environments. This was evidenced by high Codon adaption index (CAI) values across metal-resistance-related genes. study has advanced understanding virus-host interplay within soils.