Characterization of viruses infecting alexandrium fundyense

有害的藻华，如每年在新州芬迪湾的亚历山大藻华或“赤潮”，给水产养殖业造成了巨大的经济损失。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。直到最近，人们才认识到病毒感染在影响浮游植物种群动态方面的作用。现在人们认识到，在浮游植物细胞高度集中的藻华期间，病毒感染变得尤为重要，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被分离和鉴定。我最近从芬迪湾分离出一种新的裂解剂，它能在接种后5天内使芬迪梭实验室培养物裂解。到目前为止收集到的证据表明，这种溶解剂是病毒。这是一项进一步表征该病毒的建议，包括确定其生物学性质，检查其与已知藻类病毒的关系，并检查其在宿主a . fundyense种群中的中介作用。通过更好地了解这种新病毒的基本生物学，并检查病毒的季节丰度及其产生和衰变的速度，我们将能够开发出病毒如何介导赤潮的模型。这将为科学界提供对制定沿海资源管理战略至关重要的信息。尽管越来越多的证据表明藻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具有重要作用，但迄今为止，成功分离和培养的藻病毒很少。对我分离出的新型病原体的进一步表征不仅将提供关于病毒在底藻华中的作用的关键信息，而且还将对我们对水生微生物相互作用的总体理解做出重大贡献。

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.