This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Clasen, J. L.
Right arrow Articles by Suttle, C. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Clasen, J. L.
Right arrow Articles by Suttle, C. A.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Clasen, J. L.
Right arrow Articles by Suttle, C. A.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2009, p. 991-997, Vol. 75, No. 4
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02024-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification of Freshwater Phycodnaviridae and Their Potential Phytoplankton Hosts, Using DNA pol Sequence Fragments and a Genetic-Distance Analysis{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Jessica L. Clasen1,{ddagger} and Curtis A. Suttle2*

Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z4,1 Departments of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Botany, and Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z42

Received 1 September 2008/ Accepted 11 December 2008

Viruses that infect phytoplankton are an important component of aquatic ecosystems, yet in lakes they remain largely unstudied. In order to investigate viruses (Phycodnaviridae) infecting eukaryotic phytoplankton in lakes and to estimate the number of potential host species, samples were collected from four lakes at the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario, Canada, during the ice-free period (mid-May to mid-October) of 2004. From each lake, Phycodnaviridae DNA polymerase (pol) gene fragments were amplified using algal-virus-specific primers and separated by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis; 20 bands were extracted from the gels and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that freshwater environmental phycodnavirus sequences belong to distinct phylogenetic groups. An analysis of the genetic distances "within" and "between" monophyletic groups of phycodnavirus isolates indicated that DNA pol sequences that differed by more than 7% at the inferred amino acid level were from viruses that infect different host species. Application of this threshold to phylogenies of environmental sequences indicated that the DNA pol sequences from these lakes came from viruses that infect at least nine different phytoplankton species. A multivariate statistical analysis suggested that potential freshwater hosts included Mallomonas sp., Monoraphidium sp., and Cyclotella sp. This approach should help to unravel the relationships between viruses in the environment and the phytoplankton hosts they infect.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Rm. 1461, 6270 University Blvd., Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. Phone: (604) 822-9652. Fax: (604) 822-5558. E-mail: csuttle{at}eos.ubc.ca

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 16 December 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

{ddagger} Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2009, p. 991-997, Vol. 75, No. 4
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02024-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»