Mesocosm setup
The mesocosm experiment AQUACOSM VIMS-Ehux was carried out between 24th May (day 0) and 16th June (day 23) 2018 in Raunefjorden at the Marine Biological Station Espegrend, Norway (60°16′11 N; 5°13′07E) as previously described [7]. Four light-transparent enclosure bags were filled with surrounding fjord water (day −1; pumped from 5 m depth), and continuously mixed by aeration (from day 0 onwards). Each bag was supplemented with nutrients at a nitrogen to phosphorous ratio of 16:1 (1.6 µM NaNO3 and 0.1 µM KH2PO4 final concentration) on days 0–5 and 14–17, whereas on days 6, 7, and 13 only nitrogen was added. Nutrient concentrations were measured daily [18].
Enumeration of phytoplankton cells by flow cytometry
For E. huxleyi enumeration by flow cytometry, water samples were collected in 50 mL tubes from ~1 m depth. Water samples were pre-filtered using 40 µm cell strainers and immediately analyzed with an Eclipse iCyt flow cytometer (Sony Biotechology, Champaign, IL, USA) as previously described [19]. A total volume of 300 µl with a flow rate of 150 µl min−1 was analyzed. A threshold was applied on the forward scatter to reduce background noise. Four groups of phytoplankton populations were identified in distinct gates by plotting the autofluorescence of chlorophyll (em: 663–737 nm) versus phycoerythrin (em: 570–620 nm) and side scatter: calcified E. huxleyi (high chlorophyll and high side scatter), Synechococcus (high phycoerythrin), nanophytoplankton including calcified and non-calcified E. huxleyi (high chlorophyll and phycoerythrin), and picophytoplankton (low chlorophyll and low phycoerythrin) [20]. See Fig. S1 for further details of gating strategy.
Enumeration of EhV-like particles and bacteria by flow cytometry
For EhV and bacteria counts, 200 µl of sample were fixed a final concentration of 0.5% glutaraldehyde for one hour at 4 °C and flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. For analysis, they were thawed and stained with SYBR gold (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) that was diluted 1:10,000 in 0.2 μm filtered TE buffer (10:1 mM Tris:EDTA, pH 8), incubated for 20 min at 80 °C and cooled to room temperature [21]. Bacteria and EhV-like particles were counted and analyzed using an Eclipse iCyt flow cytometer (ex: 488 nm, em: 500–550 nm), and identified by comparing to reference samples containing fixed EhV201 and bacteria from lab cultures. EhV gating was very stringent in order to minimize the misidentification of other large viruses such as Micromonas pusilla virus (MpV) in the samples (see Fig. S2 for further details of gating strategy for EhV counts).
Enumeration of extracellular EhV by qPCR
Water samples (1–2 l) were sequentially filtered by vacuum through polycarbonate filters with a pore size of 20 µm (47 mm; Sterlitech, Kent, WA, US), then 2 µm (Isopore, 47 mm; Merck Millipore, Cork, Ireland), and finally 0.22 µm (Isopore, 47 mm; Merck Millipore). Filters were immediately flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80 °C until further processing. DNA was extracted from the 0.22 µm filters using the DNeasy PowerWater kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Each sample was diluted 100 times, and 1 µl was then used for qPCR analysis. EhV abundance was determined by qPCR for the major capsid protein (mcp) gene [22] using the following primers: 5ʹ-acgcaccctcaatgtatggaagg-3ʹ (mcp1F[23],) and 5ʹ-rtscrgccaactcagcagtcgt-3ʹ (mcp94Rv; Mayers, K. et al., unpublished). All reactions were carried out in technical triplicates. For all reactions, Platinum SYBR Green qPCR SuperMix-UDG with ROX (Invitrogen) was used as described by the manufacturer. Reactions were performed on a QuantStudio 5 Real-Time PCR System equipped with the QuantStudio Design and Analysis Software version 1.5.1 (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) as follows: 50 °C for 2 min, 95 °C for 5 min, 40 cycles of 95 °C for 15 s, and 60 °C for 30 s. Results were calibrated against serial dilutions of EhV201 DNA at known concentrations, enabling exact enumeration of viruses. Samples showing multiple peaks in melting curve analysis or peaks that were not corresponding to the standard curves were omitted.
Vesicle concentration and separation
Lab samples
E. huxleyi CCMP2090 was grown in 20 l filtered sea water (FSW) supplemented with K/2 nutrient mix at 18 °C, 16:8 h light:dark cycle, 100 μmol photons m−2 s−1. Uninfected cultures were grown to ~ 106 cells ml−1. Infected cultures were inoculated with EhV201 at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of ~1:1 plaque forming unit (pfu) per cell and incubated under normal growth conditions for 120 h, at which time the culture had cleared. The entire 20 l volume was then filtered through a GF/C filter (Whatman, Maidstone, United Kingdom) followed by an 0.45 µm PVDF filter (Durapore, Merck Millipore) to eliminate cells and cellular debris.
Mesocosm samples
On days 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 15, 18, and 23 we collected 25 l from bags 1–4 and combined them to produce one sample of 100 l for each sampling time. The samples were pre-filtered using a 200 µm nylon mesh, and then filtered through a GF/C filter (Whatman) followed by an 0.45 µm PVDF filter (Durapore, Merck Millipore) to eliminate cells and cellular debris.
Particle concentration
Particles in the flow-through from the filtration stage were concentrated on a 100 kDa tangential flow filter (Spectrumlabs, Repligen, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA) to a final volume of ~500 ml. At this stage, mesocosm samples were stored in the dark at +4 oC and shipped back to the home lab. All samples were further concentrated to a final volume of 1–2 ml using 100 kDa Amicon-ultra filters (Merck Millipore).
Vesicle separation
Vesicles were separated from other particles (including viruses) using an 18–35% OptiPrep gradient (MilliporeSigma, St. Louis, Missouri, USA). Gradients were centrifuged in an ultracentrifuge for 12 h at 200,000 × g. Fractions (0.5 ml) were collected from the top of the gradient and the fraction material was cleaned by washing three times and resuspended in 0.02 µm-filtered FSW using 100 kDa Amicon-ultra filters (Merck Millipore). Vesicles were detected in fractions with densities of 1.05–1.07 g ml–1 (fractions 3–5 from the top).
Vesicle concentration in samples from lab cultures was measured by NTA using the NanoSight NS300 instrument (Malvern Instruments, Malvern, UK) equipped with a 488 nm laser module and NTA V3.2 software. Samples were diluted so that each field of view contained 20–100 particles. Three 60 s videos were recorded for each biological replicate, representing different fields of view. All the videos for a given experiment were processed using identical settings (screen gain of one and detection threshold of five).
RNA extraction and sequencing
In order to eliminate RNA molecules that are not packed into vesicles, we subjected vesicle samples to RNase treatment prior to RNA extraction. Samples were incubated for 60 min at 37 oC with 10 pg µl−1 of RNase A (Bio Basic, Toronto, Canada). RNase activity was inactivated by adding 100 unites of Protector RNase Inhibitor (Roche, Basel, Switzerland). Total RNA (including RNA from ~18 nucleotides or more) was extracted using the miRNeasy kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Qiagen). Libraries were prepared using the TruSeq Small RNA Library kit (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA), according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Each sample was indexed twice with the same index, one with polynucleotide kinase I treatment (according to manufacturer’s instructions, NEB, Ipswich, Massachusetts, USA) and one without. After 15 cycles of PCR amplification, libraries were cleaned with the QIAquick PCR Purification Kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Qiagen). Libraries were sequenced on the NextSeq platform (Illumina).
sRNA bioinformatics analysis
Low-quality read ends were trimmed and adaptors were removed using the cutadapt program [24], version 1.18. Reads shorter than 17 bp after the trimming were removed from further analyses. The remaining reads were mapped to an E. huxleyi integrated reference transcriptome shortly described in [6] using the RSEM software [25], version 1.3.1, with the default option of bowtie, version 1.1.2 [26]. Genes that had at least 5 reads in any of the samples were selected. For the heatmap (Fig. 1d), read counts were scaled to one million reads mapped to the E. huxleyi transcriptome and log2 transformed.
Effect of vesicles on natural populations—experimental design and analysis
On days 14 and 20 of the mesocosm experiment (blue and red arrows in Fig. 1a, respectively), we combined equal volumes of water samples from bags 1–4 and filtered them through a 10 µm nylon mesh to eliminate zooplankton predators. We then supplemented the natural populations with f/50 nutrient mix and divided them into flasks, each containing 10 ml. In total, 30 flasks were treated with vesicles from uninfected lab cultures of E. huxleyi CCMP2090, at a ratio of ~500 vesicles cell−1 (calcified E. huxleyi determined by flow cytometry), and then all flasks were incubated in a growth chamber (15 °C, 16:8 h light:dark cycle, 100 μmol photons m−2 s−1). Once a day, samples were taken for flow cytometric quantification of live cells (see “Enumeration of phytoplankton cells by flow cytometry” above), or fixed for virus and bacteria counts (see “Enumeration of EhV-like particles and bacteria by flow cytometry” above). For statistical analysis, we used two-tailed t test with equal variance.
Decay rate of EhV virions- experimental design and analysis
To determine the decay rate of infectivity of natural EhV virions, water was sampled from bag 4 on day 18, at a time point when viral infection was detected (green cross in Fig. 1a). This sample was filtered through a 0.45 PVDF filter (Durapore, Merck Millipore) to eliminate algal and most bacteria cells. EhV-like particles were counted by flow cytometry as described above and divided into nine tubes, each containing 1 ml. Triplicate samples were either treated with vesicles from EhV201-infected (VirusVesicles) or uninfected (controlVesicles) lab cultures (see above) at a ratio of ten vesicles per EhV-like particle, or not treated at all. All tubes were incubated in an on-land mesocosm facility that mimics the light and temperature conditions found at ~ 1 m depth within the fjord water. We used the most probable number (MPN) method [27] to determine the half-life of EhV within these samples. Briefly, a series of five-fold dilutions was prepared for each sample. Each dilution (10 μl) was then added, in eight technical replicates, to 100 μl of exponentially growing E. huxleyi CCMP374 cultures in multi-well plates and incubated under normal growth conditions for five days. This was repeated for four consecutive days for all samples. Clearance (infection) of the cells in the multi-wells was measured using an EnSpireTM 2300 Multilabel Reader (PerkinElmer, Turku, Finland) set to in vivo fluorescence (ex:460 nm, em:680 nm). MPN was calculated using the MPN calculation program, version 5 [28]. For the samples treated with controlvesicles, we could only obtain a positive MPN value for one time point, as the decay was faster than expected. Therefore, the minimum detectable infectivity values were used in order to calculate the maximum possible half-life. For statistical analysis, each treatment was compared to the untreated control, using ANOVA with Dunnett’s post-hoc test.
Source: Ecology - nature.com
