title: Infection of phytoplankton by aerosolized marine viruses.
abstract: Marine viruses constitute a major ecological and evolutionary driving force in the marine ecosystems. However, their dispersal mechanisms remain underexplored. Here we follow the dynamics of Emiliania huxleyi viruses (EhV) that infect the ubiquitous, bloom-forming phytoplankton E. huxleyi and show that EhV are emitted to the atmosphere as primary marine aerosols. Using a laboratory-based setup, we showed that the dynamic of EhV aerial emission is strongly coupled to the host-virus dynamic in the culture media. In addition, we recovered EhV DNA from atmospheric samples collected over an E. huxleyi bloom in the North Atlantic, providing evidence for aerosolization of marine viruses in their natural environment. Decay rate analysis in the laboratory revealed that aerosolized viruses can remain infective under meteorological conditions prevailing during E. huxleyi blooms in the ocean, allowing potential dispersal and infectivity over hundreds of kilometers. Based on the combined laboratory and in situ findings, we propose that atmospheric transport of EhV is an effective transmission mechanism for spreading viral infection over large areas in the ocean. This transmission mechanism may also have an important ecological impact on the large-scale host-virus "arms race" during bloom succession and consequently the turnover of carbon in the ocean.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Plant and Environmental Sciences, and.
authors.forename: Shlomit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharoni
authors.affiliation: Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
authors.forename: Miri
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trainic
authors.affiliation: Plant and Environmental Sciences, and.
authors.forename: Daniella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schatz
authors.affiliation: Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
authors.forename: Yoav
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lehahn
authors.affiliation: Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
authors.forename: Michel J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.
authors.forename: Kay D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Bidle
authors.affiliation: Biological Services, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel; and.
authors.forename: Shifra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ben-Dor
authors.affiliation: Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
authors.forename: Yinon
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rudich
authors.affiliation: Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences, ilan.koren@weizmann.ac.il assaf.vardi@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: Ilan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6759-6265
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Koren
authors.affiliation: Plant and Environmental Sciences, and ilan.koren@weizmann.ac.il assaf.vardi@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: Assaf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vardi
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols; D000391:Air Microbiology; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017753:Ecosystem; D005068:Eutrophication; D005814:Genes, Viral; D058087:Haptophyta / Q000821:virology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010736:Phosphoglycerate Mutase / Q000235:genetics; D017862:Phycodnaviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000821:virology*; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D004279:DNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins; D010736:Phosphoglycerate Mutase
keywords: Emiliania huxleyi virus; aerosol; algal bloom; coccolithophores; marine viruses