Cultivation and Characterization of the MaMV-DC Cyanophage that Infects Bloom-forming Cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa

• Published in: Virologica Sinica 2013-10, Vol.28 (5), p.266-271
• Main Authors: Ou, Tong, Li, Sanhua, Liao, Xiangyong, Zhang, Qiya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: agarose; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; China; Cyanobacteria - growth & development; Cyanobacteria - isolation & purification; Cyanobacteria - physiology; Cyanobacteria - ultrastructure; Cyanobacterium; DNA; DNA, Viral - genetics; DNA, Viral - isolation & purification; electron microscopy; Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; freshwater; genome; host range; Host Specificity; lakes; Lakes - virology; latent period; Medical Microbiology; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Microcystis - virology; Microcystis aeruginosa; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Oncology; polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; Research Article; restriction endonucleases; Restriction Mapping; SDS-PAGE; sodium dodecyl sulfate; structural proteins; Viral Plaque Assay; Viral Structural Proteins - analysis; Virion - ultrastructure; Virology; 噬藻体; 基因组DNA; 感染; 水华蓝藻; 琼脂糖凝胶电泳; 聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳; 铜绿微囊藻
• ISSN: 1674-0769; 1995-820X
• DOI: 10.1007/s12250-013-3340-7

The MaMV-DC cyanophage, which infects the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa, was isolated from Lake Dianchi, Kunming, China. Twenty-one cyanobacterial strains were used to detect the host range of MaMV-DC. Microcystic aeruginosa FACHB-524 and plaque purification were used to isolate individual cyanophages, and culturing MaMV-DC with cyanobacteria allowed us to prepare purified cyanophages for further analysis. Electron microscopy demonstrated that the negatively stained viral particles are tadpole-shaped with an icosahedral head approximately 70 nm in diameter and a contractile tail approximately 160 nm in length. Using one-step growth experiments, the latent period and burst size of MaMV-DC were estimated to be 2448 hours and approximately 80 infectious units per cell, respectively. Restriction endonuclease digestion and agarose gel electrophoresis were performed using purified MaMV-DC genomic DNA, and the genome size was estimated to be approximately 160 kb. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis （SDS-PAGE） analysis revealed four major structural proteins. These results support the growing interest in using freshwater cyanophages to control bloom-forming cyanobacterium.