title: Zooplankton may serve as transmission vectors for viruses infecting algal blooms in the ocean.
abstract: Marine viruses are recognized as a major driving force regulating phytoplankton community composition and nutrient cycling in the oceans. Yet, little is known about mechanisms that influence viral dispersal in aquatic systems, other than physical processes, and that lead to the rapid demise of large-scale algal blooms in the oceans. Here, we show that copepods, abundant migrating crustaceans that graze on phytoplankton, as well as other zooplankton can accumulate and mediate the transmission of viruses infecting Emiliania huxleyi, a bloom-forming coccolithophore that plays an important role in the carbon cycle. We detected by PCR that >80% of copepods collected during a North Atlantic E. huxleyi bloom carried E. huxleyi virus (EhV) DNA. We demonstrated by isolating a new infectious EhV strain from a copepod microbiome that these viruses are infectious. We further showed that EhVs can accumulate in high titers within zooplankton guts during feeding or can be adsorbed to their surface. Subsequently, EhV can be dispersed by detachment or via viral-dense fecal pellets over a period of 1 day postfeeding on EhV-infected algal cells, readily infecting new host populations. Intriguingly, the passage through zooplankton guts prolonged EhV's half-life of infectivity by 35%, relative to free virions in seawater, potentially enhancing viral transmission. We propose that zooplankton, swimming through topographically adjacent phytoplankton micropatches and migrating daily over large areas across physically separated water masses, can serve as viral vectors, boosting host-virus contact rates and potentially accelerating the demise of large-scale phytoplankton blooms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Miguel José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Frada
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Daniella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schatz
authors.affiliation: The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, H. Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory, Eilat 88103, Israel.
authors.forename: Viviana
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Farstey
authors.affiliation: Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
authors.forename: Justin E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ossolinski
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sabanay
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Services, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Shifra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ben-Dor
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Ilan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Koren
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. Electronic address: assaf.vardi@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: Assaf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vardi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D033342:Copepoda / Q000821:virology; D004199:Disease Vectors; D005068:Eutrophication; D058087:Haptophyta / Q000821:virology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000821:virology; D010942:Plant Viruses / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D015048:Zooplankton / Q000821:virology*