title: Marine Phages As Tracers: Effects of Size, Morphology, and Physico-Chemical Surface Properties on Transport in a Porous Medium.
abstract: Although several studies examined the transport of viruses in terrestrial systems only few studies exist on the use of marine phages (i.e., nonterrestrial viruses infecting marine host bacteria) as sensitively detectable microbial tracers for subsurface colloid transport and water flow. Here, we systematically quantified and compared for the first time the effects of size, morphology and physicochemical surface properties of six marine phages and two coliphages (MS2, T4) on transport in sand-filled percolated columns. Phage-sand interactions were described by colloidal filtration theory and the extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek approach (XDLVO), respectively. The phages belonged to different families and comprised four phages never used in transport studies (i.e., PSA-HM1, PSA-HP1, PSA-HS2, and H3/49). Phage transport was influenced by size, morphology and hydrophobicity in an approximate order of size > hydrophobicity ≥ morphology. Two phages PSA-HP1, PSA-HS2 (Podoviridae and Siphoviridae) exhibited similar mass recovery as commonly used coliphage MS2 and were 7-fold better transported than known marine phage vB_PSPS-H40/1. Differing properties of the marine phages may be used to trace transport of indigenous viruses, natural colloids or anthropogenic nanomaterials and, hence, contribute to better risk analysis. Our results underpin the potential role of marine phages as microbial tracer for transport of colloidal particles and water flow.
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ , Department of Environmental Microbiology, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Nawras
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ghanem
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ , Department of Environmental Microbiology, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Bärbel
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kiesel
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ , Department of Environmental Microbiology, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kallies
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ , Department of Environmental Microbiology, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Hauke
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harms
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ , Department of Environmental Microbiology, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Antonis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chatzinotas
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ , Department of Environmental Microbiology, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Lukas Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Wick
mesh_terms: D001435:Bacteriophages; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry; D017909:Levivirus; D016062:Porosity; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids