From small hosts come big viruses: the complete genome of a second <i>Ostreococcus tauri</i> virus, OtV‐1

Weynberg, Karen D.; Allen, Michael J.; Ashelford, Kevin E.; Scanlan, David J.; Wilson, William H.

doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.01991.x

Cited by 67 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…Phycodnaviridae infect a broad range of eukaryotic algae (38). To date, 12 genome sequences of viruses infecting the prasinophyte alga Ostreococcus-a widely distributed marine Mamiellophyceae (39,40) and the smallest known free-living eukaryotic cell-are available (41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46). These include viruses that infect one of three species: O. tauri, Ostreococcus lucimarinus, and Ostreococcus mediterraneus.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host-derived viral transporter protein for nitrogen uptake in infected marine phytoplankton

Monier

Chambouvet

Milner

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Phytoplankton community structure is shaped by both bottomup factors, such as nutrient availability, and top-down processes, such as predation. Here we show that marine viruses can blur these distinctions, being able to amend how host cells acquire nutrients from their environment while also predating and lysing their algal hosts. Viral genomes often encode genes derived from their host. These genes may allow the virus to manipulate host metabolism to improve viral fitness. We identify in the genome of a phytoplankton virus, which infects the small green alga Ostreococcus tauri, a host-derived ammonium transporter. This gene is transcribed during infection and when expressed in yeast mutants the viral protein is located to the plasma membrane and rescues growth when cultured with ammonium as the sole nitrogen source. We also show that viral infection alters the nature of nitrogen compound uptake of host cells, by both increasing substrate affinity and allowing the host to access diverse nitrogen sources. This is important because the availability of nitrogen often limits phytoplankton growth. Collectively, these data show that a virus can acquire genes encoding nutrient transporters from a host genome and that expression of the viral gene can alter the nutrient uptake behavior of host cells. These results have implications for understanding how viruses manipulate the physiology and ecology of phytoplankton, influence marine nutrient cycles, and act as vectors for horizontal gene transfer.Phycodnaviridae | NCLDV | prasinophytes | Mamiellophyceae | lateral gene transfer

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host-derived viral transporter protein for nitrogen uptake in infected marine phytoplankton

Monier

Chambouvet

Milner

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Viruses from several other genera in the phycodnavirus family have been sequenced, and members from two of them encode K + channel proteins, including viruses that infect the filamentous brown alga Ectocarpus siliculosus (Delaroque et al, 2001) and viruses that infect some of the smallest known algae (the Prasinophytes), Ostreococcus (Derelle et al, 2008;Weynberg et al, 2009), Micromonas (Moreau et al, 2010), and Bathycoccus spp. (Moreau et al, 2010).…”

Section: Channel and Transporter Gene Products Coded By Algal Virusesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potassium Ion Channels: Could They Have Evolved from Viruses?

et al. 2013

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“…Three Mamiellophyceae genera, Bathycoccus, Micromonas, and Ostreococcus, are almost always present in environmental clone library studies from coastal environments or quantitative PCR (qPCR)-and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRLFP)-based studies from coastal and more oligotrophic sites (23)(24)(25)(26)(27). These picoplanktonic genera are infected by double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) lytic prasinoviruses (17)(18)(19)(20)28) that can be detected and isolated from down to one infectious particle per liter of seawater using plating approaches for attaining lytic plaques (29).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More specifically, it is unclear whether diversity is connected to geographical distance and whether differential infection and lysis patterns exist among such viruses that infect the same host strain. Prasinophyte/prasinovirus systems offer powerful models, because the hosts (prasinophyte algae) are relatively well characterized and because many lytic viruses presenting various host specificities have been isolated on these algae (1,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). The prasinophytes and, more specifically, members of the class Mamiellophyceae represent an ecologically important group of unicellular green algae that are found in the euphotic zone of many marine settings (22).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of Viruses Infecting the Green Microalga Ostreococcus lucimarinus

Derelle

Monier

Cooke

et al. 2015

J Virol

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The functional diversity of eukaryotic viruses infecting a single host strain from seawater samples originating from distant marine locations is unknown. To estimate this diversity, we used lysis plaque assays to detect viruses that infect the widespread species Ostreococcus lucimarinus, which is found in coastal and mesotrophic systems, and O. tauri, which was isolated from coastal and lagoon sites from the northwest Mediterranean Sea. Detection of viral lytic activities against O. tauri was not observed using seawater from most sites, except those close to the area where the host strain was isolated. In contrast, the more cosmopolitan O. lucimarinus species recovered viruses from locations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. Six new O. lucimarinus viruses (OlVs) then were characterized and their genomes sequenced. Two subgroups of OlVs were distinguished based on their genetic distances and on the inversion of a central 32-kb-long DNA fragment, but overall their genomes displayed a high level of synteny. The two groups did not correspond to proximity of isolation sites, and the phylogenetic distance between these subgroups was higher than the distances observed among viruses infecting O. tauri. Our study demonstrates that viruses originating from very distant sites are able to infect the same algal host strain and can be more diverse than those infecting different species of the same genus. Finally, distinctive features and evolutionary distances between these different viral subgroups does not appear to be linked to biogeography of the viral isolates. IMPORTANCEMarine eukaryotic phytoplankton virus diversity has yet to be addressed, and more specifically, it is unclear whether diversity is connected to geographical distance and whether differential infection and lysis patterns exist among such viruses that infect the same host strain. Here, we assessed the genetic distance of geographically segregated viruses that infect the ubiquitous green microalga Ostreococcus. This study provides the first glimpse into the diversity of predicted gene functions in Ostreococcus viruses originating from distant sites and provides new insights into potential host distributions and restrictions in the world oceans.

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From small hosts come big viruses: the complete genome of a second Ostreococcus tauri virus, OtV‐1

Cited by 67 publications

References 108 publications

Host-derived viral transporter protein for nitrogen uptake in infected marine phytoplankton

Host-derived viral transporter protein for nitrogen uptake in infected marine phytoplankton

Potassium Ion Channels: Could They Have Evolved from Viruses?

Diversity of Viruses Infecting the Green Microalga Ostreococcus lucimarinus

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