蛇纹石化是地球上最重要的水岩反应之一，对生命起源和全球物质循环具有重要作用。由于蛇纹石化作用会产生大量甲烷并大幅提高环境的碱性和还原性，因此耦联硫酸盐还原的甲烷厌氧氧化（AOM）被认为是该环境下微生物最主要的代谢方式之一。尽管我们已经知道多数甲烷厌氧氧化古菌（ANME）通过与硫酸盐还原细菌（SRB）共生完成AOM的机制，但是病毒感染对该共生体系的影响尚缺乏了解。本项目计划以马里亚纳弧前蛇纹石泥火山为研究对象，采用直接观察和多组学分析的手段，研究在受蛇纹石化作用影响的超碱性环境下参与AOM的微生物的群落组成及其驱动AOM作用的机制；分析病毒的多样性、生存策略和潜在宿主组成，评估病毒在维持AOM共生体系平衡中的作用；研究病毒携带的辅助代谢基因的多样性，解析病毒感染对AOM作用中的关键代谢通路的调控作用。本研究的开展将使我们从更全面的角度认识微生物在超基性环境下协同驱动的AOM作用。

Serpentinization is one of the most important water-rock reactions on Earth, and it plays important roles in the origin of life and the global material cycles. Since serpentinization produces a large amount of methane and greatly improves the alkalinity and reducibility of the environment, anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) coupled with sulfate reduction is considered to be one of the most important metabolic pathways of microorganisms in this environment. Although we already know the mechanism by which most methane anaerobic archaea (ANME) complete AOM through symbiosis with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), the impact of viral infection on this symbiotic system is still poorly understood. This project plans to take Mariana forearc serpentine mud volcanoes as the research object and use direct observation and multi-omics analysis to study the microbial groups participating in AOM and the underlying mechanism of AOM in the environment affected by serpentinization. The diversity of viruses, their living strategies and potential hosts will be analyzed to assess the role of viruses in maintaining the balance of the AOM symbiotic system. The diversity of auxiliary metabolic genes carried by the virus will be studied to analyze the regulatory role of viral infection on the key metabolic pathways in the AOM process. The development of this study will enable us to understand the mechanism of AOM driven by microorganisms in ultramafic environment from a more comprehensive perspective.