Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

CS15 Harmful Algal Blooms

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Time: 4:45:00 PM

Location: Cochiti/Taos

Juneau, P, , Univ. of British Columbia, Earth and Ocean Sciences Dept./Oceanography, Vancouver, BC, Canada, juneau@interchange.ubc.ca

Lawrence, J, E, Univ. of British Columbia, Earth and Ocean Sciences Dept./Oceanography, Vancouver, BC, Canada, jlawrence@eos.ubc.ca

Suttle, C, A, Univ. of British Columbia, Earth and Ocean Sciences Dept./Oceanography, Vancouver, BC, Canada, suttle@eos.ubc.ca

Harrison, P, J, Univ. of British Columbia, Earth and Ocean Sciences Dept./Oceanography, Vancouver, BC, Canada, pharrison@eos.ubc.ca

USE OF PAM-FLUOROMETRY TO DETECT VIRAL INFECTION OF PHYTOPLANKTON

The Pulse-Amplitude-Modulation (PAM) fluorometric method was used to evaluate the effects of algal viruses, such as Micromonas pusilla virus (MpV), Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus-1 (PBCV-1), Heterosigma akashiwo 263 and IC1 viruses, on the photosynthetic activity of their specific hosts (Micromonas pusilla, Chlorella and Heterosigma akashiwo). The photosynthetic activity impairment induced by the different viruses was correlated with the lytic cycle stage. We found that the photosynthetic activity of H. akashiwo infected by either IC1 or 263 viruses, is not or is little affected until the final lysis of the host cells. However, for Chlorella and M. pusilla (experiments are underway) we expect that the photosynthetic activities measured by PAM-fluorometry, will change rapidly, since it is known that the carbon fixation is altered in both virus systems before the cell lysis event. Our results suggest that, in some cases, PAM-fluorometry can be used as a simple method to detect viral infection. Changes in various fluorometric parameters, upon virus infection, also provide information on the light utilization mechanisms by the photosynthetic apparatus of the infected hosts.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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