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Title: Transcriptional responses of the marine green alga Micromonas pusilla and an infecting prasinovirus under different phosphate conditions

Journal Article · · Environmental Microbiology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [7]
  1. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada); Oregon Health & Science Univ., Portland, OR (United States)
  3. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
  4. Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA (United States)
  5. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  6. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada); Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto (Canada)
  7. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA (United States); Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto (Canada)

Prasinophytes are widespread marine algae for which responses to nutrient limitation and viral infection are not well understood. We studied the picoprasinophyte, Micromonas pusilla, grown under phosphate-replete (0.65 ± 0.07 d-1) and 10-fold lower (low)-phosphate (0.11 ± 0.04 d-1) conditions, and infected by the phycodnavirus MpV-SP1. Expression of 17% of Micromonas genes in uninfected cells differed by >1.5-fold (q < 0.01) between nutrient conditions, with genes for P-metabolism and the uniquely-enriched Sel1-like repeat (SLR) family having higher relative transcript abundances, while phospholipid-synthesis genes were lower in low-P than P-replete. Approximately 70% (P-replete) and 30% (low-P) of cells were lysed 24 h post-infection, and expression of ≤5.8% of host genes changed relative to uninfected treatments. Host genes for CAZymes and glycolysis were activated by infection, supporting importance in viral production, which was significantly lower in slower growing (low-P) hosts. All MpV-SP1 genes were expressed, and our analyses suggest responses to differing host-phosphate backgrounds involve few viral genes, while the temporal program of infection involves many more, and is largely independent of host-phosphate background. Our study (i) identifies genes previously unassociated with nutrient acclimation or viral infection, (ii) provides insights into the temporal program of prasinovirus gene expression by hosts and (iii) establishes cell biological aspects of an ecologically important host-prasinovirus system that differ from other marine algal-virus systems

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0004765
OSTI ID:
1529112
Journal Information:
Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 20, Issue 8; ISSN 1462-2912
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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  • Needham, David M.; Poirier, Camille; Hehenberger, Elisabeth
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 374, Issue 1786 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0086
journal October 2019