Characterization of viruses infecting alexandrium fundyense

有害藻华，例如NB的芬迪湾的芬迪亚历山大藻（Alexandiumfundyense）的年度藻华或“赤潮”，已经给水产养殖业造成了巨大的金钱损失。这种藻类在世界各地的沿海地区造成贝类中毒、鱼类死亡、人类疾病和死亡。病毒感染只是最近才被认识到其影响浮游植物种群动态的作用。现在人们认识到，在浮游植物细胞高度集中的藻华期间，病毒感染变得特别重要，因为感染率取决于宿主细胞的密度。然而，目前很少有藻类病毒分离和表征。我最近从芬迪湾分离出一种新的溶解剂，它能引起A。Fundyense实验室培养物接种后5天内。迄今为止收集的证据表明，溶解剂是病毒。这是一个建议，以进一步表征这种病毒，包括确定其生物学性质，检查其与已知的藻类病毒的相关性，并检查其在介导其宿主，A。fundyense。透过更深入了解这种新病毒的基本生物学，以及研究病毒的季节丰度及其产生和衰变的速度，我们将能够建立一个病毒如何介导赤潮的模型。这将为科学界提供对制定我国沿海资源管理战略至关重要的信息。迄今为止，尽管越来越多的证据表明藻类病毒在控制宿主群落组成和多样性、营养循环以及作为遗传转移载体方面的重要性，但很少有藻类病毒被成功地分离和培养。对我分离出的新病原体的进一步鉴定不仅将提供有关病毒在A. fundyense开花，但也将大大有助于我们了解水生微生物的相互作用一般。

Harmful algal blooms, such as the annual blooms or "red tides" of Alexandrium fundyense in the Bay of Fundy, NB, have caused substantial monetary losses to the aquaculture industry. This algal species causes shellfish toxicity, fish kills, human illness and death in coastal areas around the world. Viral infection has only recently been appreciated for its role in influencing the population dynamics of phytoplankton. It is now recognized that viral infections become especially important during algal blooms when phytoplankton cells are highly concentrated, since the rate of infection is dependent on the density of host cells. However, there are currently very few algal viruses isolated and characterized. I have recently isolated a novel lytic agent from the Bay of Fundy that causes the lysis of A. fundyense laboratory cultures within 5 days of inoculation. Evidence gathered to this date suggests that the lytic agent is viral. This is a proposal to further characterize this virus, including determining its biological nature, examining its relatedness to known algal viruses, and examining its the role in mediating populations of its host, A. fundyense. By better understanding the basic biology of this novel virus, and examining the season abundance of the virus and the rates of its production and decay, we will be able to develop a model for how viruses may mediate red tides. This will provide the scientific community with information critical for developing management strategies for our coastal resources. Very few algal viruses have been successfully isolated and cultured to date despite the mounting evidence of their importance in controlling host community composition and diversity, nutrient cycling, and acting as vectors for genetic transfer. Further characterization of the novel agent I have isolated will not only provide critical information on the role of viruses in A. fundyense blooms, but will also contribute significantly to our understanding of aquatic microbial interactions in general.