Diversity of Marine Phage in the Pacific Ocean

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DEB 9972054 AzamThis project is designed to survey the diversity of marine phages from several sites in the Pacific Ocean. Bacteriophage are ubiquitous components of the marine environment frequently reaching concentrations of tens to hundreds of millions of individuals per ml. The decay rates of the bacteriophage are rapid, suggesting that production must be high to maintain the observed standing stocks. While numerous attempts have been made to incorporate these observations and their implications-such as mortality of marine bacteria-into the marine microbial food web, most of these studies have ignored the specificity of host/virus interactions. In fact, the diversity of marine phage is essentially unknown. Characterization of the phage isolates will be accomplished by electron microscopy, Pulse-field Gel Electrophoresis, and sequencing. These tests are specifically designed to identify the phage and classify them within known groups and to identify phage that represent novel groups. This study will be the first to systematically address the genetic diversity of this uncharacterized biota. The protocols develop and utilized here will provide the important background work for studies of phage in other environments.