Tong et al. (2026): Viral mediation of anaerobic methane oxidation to carbon sequestration in paddy soil
Di Tong, Youjing Wang, Xinwei Song, Haodan Yu, Yujie Zhou, Yu Zhang, Yong Li, Bin Ma, Caixian Tang, Randy A. Dahlgren and Jianming Xu, IN: Nature Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-01998-z
Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) can mitigate global warming by converting methane into either carbon dioxide or soil organic carbon (SOC). However, it is unclear whether soil viruses influence AOM and the associated carbon sequestration processes. Here the authors quantify the impact of viruses on the carbon sink formed through AOM and reveal the underlying mechanisms using 13C labelling and metagenomics.