Bacteriophages assisted bacteria to facilitate soil multifunctionality under organochlorine pesticide contamination

As the most abundant living entities in the environment, viruses have been well recognized as crucial members in sustaining biogeochemical cycling. However, the significance of viruses in soil ecosystem multifunctionality remains under-explored. In this study, we used metagenomics and meta-viromics analysis to investigate the role of soil viruses in soil ecosystem functions under heavy, light, and no organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) contamination. In the three types of soil samples collected, light-contaminated soils supported the highest level of multifunctionality, followed by heavy-contaminated soils and clean soils. Additionally, our results revealed a positive correlation between bacterial community evenness and multifunctionality index (p < 0.05). Dominant bacterial species with biodegradation and stress resistance advantages exhibited higher abundance in OCP-affected soils, potentially playing a core functional supporting role. Furthermore, our results indicated that the species richness and diversity of bacteriophages were positively correlated with multifunctionality (p < 0.05) in OCP-affected soils. Bacteriophages in OCP-affected soils regulate host metabolism and enhance soil ecosystem multifunctionality by infecting functional bacterial hosts and encoding AMGs related to soil element cycling. Our findings emphasize the potential effect of phages on ecosystem multifunctionality in contaminated soil, suggesting that phages may serve as contributors to soil ecology beyond bacteria and other microorganisms. Therefore, in polluted or constrained soils, further research could potentially translate phage communities and related ecological processes into artificial methods for application in soil pollution remediation or ecological restoration.