THE EFFECT OF PHOSPHATE STATUS ON THE KINETICS OF CYANOPHAGE INFECTION IN THE OCEANIC CYANOBACTERIUM SYNECHOCOCCUS SP. WH7803¹

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>Phycoerythrin‐containing <jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic> species are considered to be major primary producers in nutrient‐limited gyres of subtropical and tropical oceanic provinces, and the cyanophages that infect them are thought to influence marine biogeochemical cycles. This study begins an examination of the effects of nutrient limitation on the dynamics of cyanophage/<jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic> interactions in oligotrophic environments by analyzing the infection kinetics of cyanophage strain S‐PM2 (<jats:italic>Cyanomyoviridae</jats:italic> isolated from coastal water off Plymouth, UK) propagated on <jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic> sp. WH7803 grown in either phosphate‐deplete or phosphate‐replete conditions. When the growth of <jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic> sp. WH7803 in phosphate‐deplete medium was followed after infection with cyanophage, an 18‐h delay in cell lysis was observed when compared to a phosphate‐replete control. <jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic> sp. WH7803 cultures grown at two different rates (in the same nutritional conditions) both lysed 24 h postinfection, ruling out growth rate itself as a factor in the delay of cell lysis. One‐step growth kinetics of S‐PM2 propagated on host <jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic> sp. WH7803, grown in phosphate‐deplete and‐replete media, revealed an apparent 80% decrease in burst size in phosphate‐deplete growth conditions, but phage adsorption kinetics ofS‐PM2 under these conditions showed no differences. These results suggested that the cyanophages established lysogeny in response to phosphate‐deplete growth of host cells. This suggestion was supported by comparison of the proportion of infected cells that lysed under phosphate‐replete and‐deplete conditions, which revealed that only 9.3% of phosphate‐deplete infected cells lysed in contrast to 100% of infected phosphate‐replete cells. Further studies with two independent cyanophage strains also revealed that only approximately 10% of infected phosphate‐deplete host cells released progeny cyanophages. These data strongly support the concept that the phosphate status of the <jats:italic>Synechococcus</jats:italic> cell will have a profound effect on the eventual outcome of phage‐host interactions and will therefore exert a similarly extensive effect on the dynamics of carbon flow in the marine environment.</jats:p>