Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS14 Microbial Diversity (Disciplinary Connections)

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Time: 11:15:00 AM

Location: Mesilla

Griffith, J, F, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, USA, jgriff@usc.edu

Davis, A, A, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, USA, aadavis@usc.edu

Fuhrman, J, A, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, USA, fuhrman@usc.edu

RELATING PROKARYOTIC AND VIRAL DIVERSITY IN MARINE WATERS

There has been a recent increased interest in factors controlling marine microbial communities, particularly on to what extent control in pelagic food webs is exerted via resources vs predation or viral lysis. Models of simplified systems suggest that lytic viruses may exert control on bacterial community composition even when not major factors in mortality. Here we sought to investigate the relationship between prokaryotic and viral community structures. Over a period of several days at a time series station in the San Pedro Channel, prokaryotic diversity was followed using Terminal-Fragment Length Polymorphism and Denaturing Gradient Electrophoresis, both based upon universal 16S rRNA gene sequences. Concurrently, viral diversity was assessed by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis, which provides a minimal estimate of the number of different-length viral genomes. Measurements indicated only minor changes in both community structures at 20 m depth, although the total number of viruses steadily increased over the course of the sampling period. We did observe significantly different community composition of both prokaryotes and viruses at different depths in this stratified water column.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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