A simple and efficient method for concentration of ocean viruses by chemical flocculation
Abstract
Ocean viruses alter ecosystems through host mortality, horizontal gene transfer and by facilitating remineralization of limiting nutrients. However, the study of wild viral populations is limited by inefficient and unreliable concentration techniques. Here, we develop a new technique to recover viruses from natural waters using iron-based flocculation and large-pore-size filtration, followed by resuspension of virus-containing precipitates in a pH 6 buffer. Recovered viruses are amenable to gene sequencing, and a variable proportion of phages, depending upon the phage, retain their infectivity when recovered. This Fe-based virus flocculation, filtration and resuspension method (FFR) is efficient (> 90% recovery), reliable, inexpensive and adaptable to many aspects of marine viral ecology and genomics research.
Additional Information
© 2010 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing. Received 23 April, 2010; accepted 7 July, 2010. Article first published online: 19 Aug 2010. Thanks to Gabriel Mitchell, Joshua Weitz, Eric Allen, Julio Ignacio, Elke Allers and Matthew Knatz for assistance in seawater sampling, and to Julio Ignacio for generating the gene 20 tree. We acknowledge funding support from the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP) program to CBM; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to M.F.P. and Sallie W. Chisholm; NSF, and DOE to S.W.C.; the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health and Department of Energy Genomes-to-Life program to M.F.P.; Biosphere 2, BIO5, and NSF OCE0940390 to M.B.S.; and NSF EF0424599, OCE0751409 and the Arunas and Pam Chesonis Foundation to S.G.J.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 23229
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1758-2229.2010.00208.x
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110404-100259284
- MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP)
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health
- Biosphere 2
- BIO5
- OCE0940390
- NSF
- EF0424599
- NSF
- OCE0751409
- NSF
- Arunas and Pam Chesoris Foundation
- Created
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2011-04-10Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field