Abstract
The pelagophyte Aureococcus anophagefferens has caused recurrent brown tide blooms along the northeast coast of the United States since the mid-1980’s, and more recently spread to other regions of the globe. These blooms, due to the high cell densities, are associated with severe light attenuation that destroys the sea grass beds which provide the basis for many fisheries. Data collected by transmission electron microscopy, PCR, and metatranscriptomic studies of the blooms, support the hypothesis that large dsDNA viruses play a role in bloom dynamics. While a large (~140 nm) icosahedral virus, with a 371 kbp genome, was first isolated more than a decade ago, the constraints imposed by environmental parameters on bloom infection dynamics by Aureococcus anophagefferens Virus, (AaV) remain unknown. To investigate the role light plays in infection by this virus, we acclimated A. anophagefferens to light intensities of 30 (low), 60 (medium) or 90 μmol photons m-2 s-1 (high) and infected cultures at these irradiance levels. Moreover, we completed light shift experiments where acclimated cultures were exposed to even lower light intensities (0, 5, and 15 μmol photons m-2 s-1) consistent with irradiance found during the peak of the bloom when cell concentrations are highest. The abundance of viruses produced per lytic event (burst size) was lower in the low irradiance acclimated cultures compared to the medium and high acclimated cultures. Transferring infected cultures to more-limiting light availabilities further decreased burst size and increased the length of time it took for cultures to lyse, regardless of acclimation irradiance level. A hypothetical mechanism for the reduced efficiency of the infection cycle in low light due to ribosome biogenesis was predicted from pre-existing transcriptomes. Overall, these studies provide a framework for understanding light effects on infection dynamics over the course of the summer months when A. anophagefferens blooms occur.
Highlights
In the developed quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay, there was a linear relationship between the threshold cycle and the abundance of free viruses determined by epifluorescence microscopy (C(t) = -1.492 ln(viruses mL-1) + 36.372, R2 = 0.998) to a limit of detection between 1.5–15 viruses μL-1 (S1 Fig)
In our hands, ~1% of AaV particles enumerated by epifluorescence microscopy were infectious as determined by either the most probable number (MPN) (0.77% infectious, SD = 0.12%) or plaque assay (1.76% infectious, SD = 0.28%) (S2 Fig)
The infectivity of Aureococcus anophagefferens Virus particles. Both most probable number and plaque assays were developed to determine the percentage of particles that were infectious, as this percentage varies by both the biological system [38] and assay
Summary
The pelagophyte Aureococcus anophagefferens has caused recurrent brown tide blooms off the eastern coast of the United States since 1985 [1], where blooms can achieve over 106 cells mL-1. The current study aimed to understand the effects of irradiance levels on the infection cycle that were caused by changes to the A. anophagefferens cell This is relevant to the A. anophagefferens system as there is severe light attenuation over the course of the bloom [27], and A. anophagefferens is well adapted for low light [3, 24]. These culture-based studies provide a framework for the changing host virus dynamics that occur on a population level over the summer months (as increased cell concentration increases light attenuation). These results illustrate the importance of considering the varying irradiance levels at an individual or population level and the impact on infection cycle dynamics
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
