Nitrification is a microbially-mediated process that is central to the global nitrogen cycle1 and is performed by taxonomically and functionally restricted groups of chemolithoautotrophic organisms (nitrifiers) (1). As such, they have been used as model groups for linking phylogeny, evolution, and ecophysiology in soil microbial ecology. Viruses infect all organisms and can affect biogeochemical cycles by killing active cells via lysis or by augmenting host metabolism through the transfer of auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) (2). Recent advances have demonstrated that virus communities infecting prokaryotes are dynamic and active in a wide range of soils (3), and our group has recently shown that focusing on specific biogeochemical processes, such as nitrification, facilitates characterising virus-host dynamics (4). By targeting viruses that infect nitrifiers, we have discovered that they are diverse and active during nitrification and possess a range of predicted AMGs encoding proteins involved in energy metabolism (5)