Virus-mediated total release of dimethylsulfoniopropionate from marine phytoplankton: a potential climate process

Richard W. Hill; Bradley A. White; Matthew T. Cottrell; John W. H. Dacey

doi:10.3354/ame014001

AME

Aquatic Microbial Ecology

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AME 14:1-6 (1998) - doi:10.3354/ame014001

Virus-mediated total release of dimethylsulfoniopropionate from marine phytoplankton: a potential climate process

Richard W. Hill^1,*, Bradley A. White¹, Matthew T. Cottrell^2,**, John W. H. Dacey³

¹Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
²Marine Science Institute, University of Texas at Austin, Port Aransas, Texas 78373, USA
³Department of Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA

*E-mail: hillr@pilot.msu.edu
**Present address: College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, Lewes, Delaware 19958, USA

Growing, axenic cultures of the eukaryotic marine microalga Micromonas pusilla (Prasinophyceae) were inoculated with 0.7 infectious particles cell^-1 of the viral pathogen MPV (Micromonas pusilla virus). Starting 11 to 14 h after the inoculation, rapid release of intracellular dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) to the dissolved pool occurred along with cell lysis. DMSP release was total. Release facilitates bacterial degradation of DMSP to dimethylsulfide, a gas that affects cloud cover over the oceans. Viruses of eukaryotic marine phytoplankton may thus participate in the biological shaping of global climate.

Dimethylsulfide · Dimethylsulfoniopropionate · Algal virus · Micromonas pusilla · MPV

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AME 14:1-6 (1998) - doi:10.3354/ame014001

Virus-mediated total release of dimethylsulfoniopropionate from marine phytoplankton: a potential climate process

Richard W. Hill1,*, Bradley A. White1, Matthew T. Cottrell2,**, John W. H. Dacey3

Richard W. Hill^1,*, Bradley A. White¹, Matthew T. Cottrell^2,**, John W. H. Dacey³