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RESEARCH ARTICLE

The effect of viral infection on the Black Sea microalgae Tetraselmis viridis: the role of nutrients and copper ions

Liudmila V. Stelmakh https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2970-0281 A * , Raisa R. Sagadatova https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9264-5862 A and Olga S. Alatartseva https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9671-2285 A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sevastopol, Russia.

* Correspondence to: lustelm@mail.ru

Handling Editor: Calum Wilson

Functional Plant Biology 51, FP23114 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP23114
Submitted: 18 May 2023  Accepted: 14 December 2023  Published: 10 January 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

The TvV-SM2 virus, isolated from the coastal waters of the Black Sea, causes lysis of its host, the algae Tetraselmis viridis (Chlorophyta). Under optimal conditions for nutrients, an increase in the initial abundance of algae cells by four times caused a 3-fold reduction in the latent period of viral infection. During the period of the most rapid cell lysis of T. viridis, nitrogen deficiency leads to a decrease in the average daily rate of death of cells affected by the virus by 3.2 times relative to the replete conditions, while in the case of phosphorus deficiency, this process slows down by up to 2.4 times. Under deplete conditions, the rate of cell death was only 34% lower than under replete conditions. The effect of copper ions (100 μg L−1) on the viral suspension for 6 h led to the complete suppression of its activity. In the presence of the host of this virus, its activity is only partially suppressed. As a result, cell lysis under the influence of a viral infection occurred in two stages. The first stage was noted only during the first 6 h of the experiment. The second main stage took place within 78–170 h. This study showed that in conditions of nutrient deficiency and in the presence of copper ions in seawater, the impact of viruses on microalgae will be weaker.

Keywords: algal viruses, Black Sea, copper ions, microalgae Tetraselmis viridis, nutrients, PAM fluorometry, the scanning electron and light microscopy, viral titer.

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