Abstract
Marine viruses that infect phytoplankton strongly influence the ecology and evolution of their hosts. Emiliania huxleyi is characterized by a biphasic life cycle composed of a diploid (2N) and haploid (1N) phase; diploid cells are susceptible to infection by specific coccolithoviruses, yet haploid cells are resistant. Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) play a role during infection, but their molecular distribution in haploid cells is unknown. We present mass spectrometric analyses of lipids from cultures of uninfected diploid, infected diploid, and uninfected haploid E. huxleyi. Known viral GSLs were present in the infected diploid cultures as expected, but surprisingly, trace amounts of viral GSLs were also detected in the uninfected haploid cells. Sialic-acid GSLs have been linked to viral susceptibility in diploid cells, but were found to be absent in the haploid cultures, suggesting a mechanism of haploid resistance to infection. Additional untargeted high-resolution mass spectrometry data processed via multivariate analysis unveiled a number of novel biomarkers of infected, non-infected, and haploid cells. These data expand our understanding on the dynamics of lipid metabolism during E. huxleyi host/virus interactions and highlight potential novel biomarkers for infection, susceptibility, and ploidy.
Highlights
Emiliania huxleyi (Lohmann) is the numerically dominant coccolithophore in the modern oceans and an important component of phytoplankton assemblages, inhabiting all but extreme polar oceans
We suggest that in light of these and previous observations (Fulton et al, 2014), that betaine-like glycerolipids (BLL)(22:6/22:6) and ratios thereof may be a useful biomarker of E. huxleyi viruses (EhV) infection to compliment viral glycosphingolipids (vGSLs)
The marker lipid sialic glycosphingolipid (sGSL) was recently described as indicative of susceptibility to viral infection in E. huxleyi (Fulton et al, 2014) and we found that sGSL was abundant in the virussusceptible 2N strain used in this study, RCC1216
Summary
Emiliania huxleyi (Lohmann) is the numerically dominant coccolithophore in the modern oceans and an important component of phytoplankton assemblages, inhabiting all but extreme polar oceans. It forms large, dense blooms in high-latitude coastal and shelf ecosystems that exert a critical impact upon the global carbon cycle and the earth’s climate (Westbroek et al, 1993; Paasche, 2001; Tyrrell and Merico, 2004). The efficacy of the biological pump, and the effect of viruses on phytoplankton, has direct implications upon atmospheric carbon dioxide (Suttle, 2007)
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