REVIEW ARTICLE RNA viruses in the sea Andrew S. Lang1, Matthew L. Rise2, Alexander I. Culley3 & Grieg F. Steward3 1Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL, Canada; 2Ocean Sciences Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL, Canada; and 3Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Correspondence: Andrew S. Lang, Abstract Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL, Canada A1B Viruses are ubiquitous in the sea and appear to outnumber all other forms of 3X9. Tel.: 11 709 737 7517; fax: 11 709 737 marine life by at least an order of magnitude. Through selective infection, viruses 3018; e-mail:
[email protected] influence nutrient cycling, community structure, and evolution in the ocean. Over the past 20 years we have learned a great deal about the diversity and ecology of the Received 31 March 2008; revised 29 July 2008; viruses that constitute the marine virioplankton, but until recently the emphasis accepted 21 August 2008. has been on DNA viruses. Along with expanding knowledge about RNA viruses First published online 26 September 2008. that infect important marine animals, recent isolations of RNA viruses that infect single-celled eukaryotes and molecular analyses of the RNA virioplankton have DOI:10.1111/j.1574-6976.2008.00132.x revealed that marine RNA viruses are novel, widespread, and genetically diverse. Discoveries in marine RNA virology are broadening our understanding of the Editor: Cornelia Buchen-Osmond ¨ biology, ecology, and evolution of viruses, and the epidemiology of viral diseases, Keywords but there is still much that we need to learn about the ecology and diversity of RNA RNA virus; virioplankton; virus diversity; marine viruses before we can fully appreciate their contributions to the dynamics of virus; virus ecology; aquaculture.