Cyanobacterial viruses exhibit diurnal rhythms during infection.

ABSTRACT: As an adaptation to the daily light-dark (diel) cycle, cyanobacteria exhibit diurnal rhythms of gene expression and cell cycle. The light-dark cycle also affects the life cycle of viruses (cyanophages) that infect the unicellular picocyanobacteria Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus, which are the major primary producers in the oceans. For example, the adsorption of some cyanophages to the host cells depends on light, and the burst sizes of cyanophages are positively correlated to the length of light exposure during infection. Recent metatranscriptomic studies revealed transcriptional rhythms of field cyanophage populations. However, the underlying mechanism remains to be determined, as cyanophage laboratory cultures have not been shown to exhibit diurnal transcriptional rhythm

SUBMITTER: Liu R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6628666 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature