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Join Professor Pepa Antón from the University of Alicante, Spain for an EAI seminar exploring the fascinating world of viruses in hypersaline environments. Discover how these extreme ecosystems contain remarkably high concentrations of microorganisms and viral particles, with virus-to-microbe ratios reaching up to 300 viruses per cell. Learn how researchers combine cultivation techniques with culture-independent methods like genomics and metagenomics to identify viruses associated with key prokaryotic groups such as Haloquadratum, nanohaloarchaea, and Salinibacter ruber. Explore temporal tracking studies that reveal viral evolution patterns and the relationship between intracellular and extracellular viral abundance. Understand why solar salters serve as excellent model systems for studying bacterial diversity and virus-host interactions within an ecological context, particularly in environments where traditional predators like protists cannot survive. This 54-minute presentation on May 27th, 2025 (16:00 CEST) offers valuable insights into microbial ecology in extreme environments that comprise approximately 50% of continental waters.
