show Abstracthide AbstractThis study is an initial investigation of the relationship between benthic meiofauna and circular rep-encoding ssDNA (CRESS-DNA) viruses in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Goals of whole-amphipod transcriptome sequencing include: (1) elucidate the relationship between presence/load of CRESS-DNA virus LM29173 and Diporeia gene expression (2) determine if gene expression profiles vary by amphipod population, and (3) identify innate-immunity related genes putatively associated with LM29173 presence.