Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra

Marine seaweeds are holobionts comprised of the macroalgal hosts and their associated microbiota. While the composition of the bacterial component of seaweed microbiomes is increasingly studied, almost nothing is known about the presence, diversity and composition of viruses in macroalgae in situ. I...

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Main Authors:	Lachnit, Tim, Thomas, Torsten, Steinberg, Peter
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4705237/

id	pubmed-4705237
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-47052372016-01-15 Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra Lachnit, Tim Thomas, Torsten Steinberg, Peter Microbiology Marine seaweeds are holobionts comprised of the macroalgal hosts and their associated microbiota. While the composition of the bacterial component of seaweed microbiomes is increasingly studied, almost nothing is known about the presence, diversity and composition of viruses in macroalgae in situ. In this study, we characterize for the first time the viruses associated with a red macroalga, Delisea pulchra. Using transmission electron microscopy we identified diverse morphotypes of virus-like particles in D. pulchra ranging from icosahedral to bacilliform to coiled pleomorphic as well as bacteriophages. Virome sequencing revealed the presence of a diverse group of dsRNA viruses affiliated to the genus Totivirus, known to infect plant pathogenic fungi. We further identified a ssRNA virus belonging to the order Picornavirales with a close phylogenetic relationship to a pathogenic virus infecting marine diatoms. The results of this study shed light on a so far neglected part of the seaweed holobiont, and suggest that some of the identified viruses may be possible pathogens for a host that is already known to be significantly impacted by bacterial infections. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-01-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4705237/ /pubmed/26779145 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.01489 Text en Copyright © 2016 Lachnit, Thomas and Steinberg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Lachnit, Tim Thomas, Torsten Steinberg, Peter
spellingShingle	Lachnit, Tim Thomas, Torsten Steinberg, Peter Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra
author_facet	Lachnit, Tim Thomas, Torsten Steinberg, Peter
author_sort	Lachnit, Tim
title	Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra
title_short	Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra
title_full	Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra
title_fullStr	Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra
title_full_unstemmed	Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra
title_sort	expanding our understanding of the seaweed holobiont: rna viruses of the red alga delisea pulchra
description	Marine seaweeds are holobionts comprised of the macroalgal hosts and their associated microbiota. While the composition of the bacterial component of seaweed microbiomes is increasingly studied, almost nothing is known about the presence, diversity and composition of viruses in macroalgae in situ. In this study, we characterize for the first time the viruses associated with a red macroalga, Delisea pulchra. Using transmission electron microscopy we identified diverse morphotypes of virus-like particles in D. pulchra ranging from icosahedral to bacilliform to coiled pleomorphic as well as bacteriophages. Virome sequencing revealed the presence of a diverse group of dsRNA viruses affiliated to the genus Totivirus, known to infect plant pathogenic fungi. We further identified a ssRNA virus belonging to the order Picornavirales with a close phylogenetic relationship to a pathogenic virus infecting marine diatoms. The results of this study shed light on a so far neglected part of the seaweed holobiont, and suggest that some of the identified viruses may be possible pathogens for a host that is already known to be significantly impacted by bacterial infections.
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4705237/
_version_	1613521252942610432

Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra

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