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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 1999, p. 241-250, Vol. 65, No. 1
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Hybridization Analysis of Chesapeake Bay Virioplanktondagger

K. Eric Wommack,Dagger Jacques Ravel, Russell T. Hill, and Rita R. Colwell*

Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Received 4 May 1998/Accepted 19 October 1998

It has been hypothesized that, by specifically lysing numerically dominant host strains, the virioplankton may play a role in maintaining clonal diversity of heterotrophic bacteria and phytoplankton populations. If viruses selectively lyse only those host species that are numerically dominant, then the number of a specific virus within the virioplankton would be expected to change dramatically over time and space, in coordination with changes in abundance of the host. In this study, the abundances of specific viruses in Chesapeake Bay water samples were monitored, using nucleic acid probes and hybridization analysis. Total virioplankton in a water sample was separated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and hybridized with nucleic acid probes specific to either single viral strains or a group of viruses with similar genome sizes. The abundances of specific viruses were inferred from the intensity of the hybridization signal. By using this technique, a virus comprising 1/1,000 of the total virioplankton abundance (ca. 104 PFU/ml) could be detected. Titers of either a single virus species or a group of viruses changed over time, increasing to peak abundance and then declining to low or undetectable levels, and were geographically localized in the bay. Peak signal intensities, i.e., peak abundances of virus strains, were 10-fold greater than the low background level. Furthermore, virus species were found to be restricted to a particular depth, since probes specific to viruses from bottom water did not hybridize with virus genomes from surface water at the same geographical location. Overall, changes in abundances of specific viruses within the virioplankton were episodic, supporting the hypothesis that viral infection influences, if not controls, clonal diversity within heterotrophic bacteria and phytoplankton communities.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, 701 E. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21202. Phone: (410) 234-8885. Fax: (410) 234-8873. E-mail: colwell{at}umbi.umd.edu.

dagger Contribution no. 316 from the Center of Marine Biotechnology; contribution no. 913 from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Dagger Present address: Dept. of Marine Sciences, School of Marine Programs, Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 1999, p. 241-250, Vol. 65, No. 1
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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