Diversity and dynamics of marine haptophytes and their viruses

Summary

Haptophytes are nano- and picoplanktonic microalgae and important primary producers in the sea. They often form blooms that may impact on global carbon balance and climate forcing, and at times cause fish kills. Viruses may terminate these blooms. Knowledge on haptophyte diversity, quantitative distribution and dynamics at species level is limited because they are small and fragile, and species identification usually requires electron microscopy or molecular methods. In the project HAPTODIV we have developed methods to explore the diversity and dynamics of haptophytes and their viruses, using 454-pyrosequencing, environmental clone libraries, DNA-sequencing of new isolates, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, quantitative PCR, flow cytometry and microscopy. Plankton samples and environmental data were collected monthly from the Oslofjorden and Raunefjorden for two years. A high diversity of haptophytes was revealed, and a majority of the sequences represent unknown or uncultured species. Several taxa are recorded for the first time in Norwegian and North European waters and some may represent new taxonomic lineages (orders and class). In Oslofjorden and Raunefjorden, some taxa are present at all times, such as bloom-formers in the genera Emiliania, Phaeocystis, Chrysochromulina and Prymnesium, whereas the calcifying coccolithophorids were found mainly in summer-autumn, the period with highest diversity and temperature. The diversity of virus infecting algae (Phycodnaviridae), including haptophyte specific viruses, differed over time and with locality and was highest in spring and lowest in winter. We have isolated and characterised four new haptophyte specific viruses that differ more in genome size, DNA sequence or infection cycle than previously shown. Genetic characterisation of viruses and their haptophyte hosts have revealed their diversity, and also improved our understanding of virus-host interactions and fundamental biological processes in the ocean.