Viruses are among the most abundant biological entities in the world, numbering approximately 4x1030 in the ocean alone. Despite the inherent importance of viruses, aspects of host preferences and specificity within the environment remain understudied. This study aimed to connect environmental phages to their environmental bacterial hosts. To this end, two different culture-independent methodologies allowed for the association of viruses to their hosts. First, a new method was tested that allowed for the visualization of virally infected cells through fluorescence microscopy. Secondly, co-occurrence networks were used to analyze PCR amplicons of bacteria and viruses from monthly samples. Together, these approaches allowed for coverage of a much wider range of marine bacteria and their viruses than previous studies. The methods can also lead to flow cytometry sorting and single cell genomics, allowing for a deeper understanding of the infection types present
