Host-derived viral transporter protein for nitrogen uptake in infected marine phytoplankton - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Année : 2017

Host-derived viral transporter protein for nitrogen uptake in infected marine phytoplankton

Résumé

Phytoplankton community structure is shaped by both bottom-up factors, such as nutrient availability, and top-down processes, such as predation. Here we show that marine viruses can blur these distinctions, being able to amend how host cells acquire nutrients from their environment while also predating and lysing their algal hosts. Viral genomes often encode genes derived from their host. These genes may allow the virus to manipulate host metabolism to improve viral fitness. We identify in the genome of a phytoplankton virus, which infects the small green alga Ostre-ococcus tauri, a host-derived ammonium transporter. This gene is transcribed during infection and when expressed in yeast mutants the viral protein is located to the plasma membrane and rescues growth when cultured with ammonium as the sole nitrogen source. We also show that viral infection alters the nature of nitrogen compound uptake of host cells, by both increasing substrate affinity and allowing the host to access diverse nitrogen sources. This is important because the availability of nitrogen often limits phytoplankton growth. Collectively, these data show that a virus can acquire genes encoding nutrient transporters from a host genome and that expression of the viral gene can alter the nutrient uptake behavior of host cells. These results have implications for understanding how viruses manipulate the physiology and ecology of phytoplankton, influence marine nutrient cycles, and act as vectors for horizontal gene transfer.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Monier_etal_PNAS_2017.pdf (7.09 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Publication financée par une institution
Loading...

Dates et versions

hal-02406334 , version 1 (19-05-2020)

Identifiants

Citer

Adam Monier, Aurélie Chambouvet, David Milner, Victoria Attah, Ramón Terrado, et al.. Host-derived viral transporter protein for nitrogen uptake in infected marine phytoplankton. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017, 114 (36), pp.E7489-E7498. ⟨10.1073/pnas.1708097114⟩. ⟨hal-02406334⟩
84 Consultations
54 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More