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Potential Effect of Freshwater Virus on the Structure and Activity of Bacterial Communities in the Marennes-Oléron Bay (France)

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Abstract

Batch culture experiments using viral enrichment were conducted to test the response of a coastal bacterial community to autochthonous (i.e., co-existing) or allochthonous riverine viruses. The effects of viral infections on bacterial dynamics and activity were assessed by epifluorescence microscopy and thymidine incorporation, respectively, whereas the effect of viral infection on bacterial community composition was examined by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism 16S ribosomal RNA fingerprinting. The percentages of high nucleic acid-containing cells, evaluated by flow cytometry, were significantly correlated (r 2 = 0.91, n = 12, p < 0.0001) to bacterial production, making this value a good predictor of active cell dynamics along the study. While confinement and temperature were the two principal experimental factors affecting bacterial community composition and dynamics, respectively, additions of freshwater viruses had significant effects on coastal bacterial communities. Thus, foreign viruses significantly reduced net bacterial population increase as compared to the enrichment treated with inactivated virus. Moreover, freshwater viruses recurrently and specifically affected bacterial community composition, as compared to addition of autochthonous viruses. In most cases, the combined treatment viruses and freshwater dissolved organic matter helped to maintain or even enhance species richness in coastal bacterial communities in agreement to the ‘killing the winner’ hypothesis. Thus, riverine virus input could potentially influence bacterial community composition of the coastal bay albeit with modest modification of bulk bacterial growth.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the French ‘Programme National en Environnement Côtier’ (PNEC, ART 5), the ‘Contrat de Plan Etat Région’ (CPER 2000–2005) and the ‘Conseil Général de Charente-Maritime’ (PhD grant to J.-C. Auguet). EO Casamayor is a ‘Ramon y Cajal’ Fellow supported by project REN 2003-08333 from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) and the European Community. At the final writing period for this work, J.-C. Auguet benefited from a SEUI-MEC Spanish postdoctoral fellowship. We gratefully acknowledge E. Parlier and O. Herlory for their help in field sampling and E. Luppé, J. Léger and J. Hombrados for their help with microbial counts. We also thank J. Guarini for her English review and general comments on the paper.

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Author notes

  1. J. C. Auguet

    Present address: Unitat de Limnologia, Departament d’Ecologia Continental, Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes-CSIC, 17300, Blanes, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherche sur les Ecosystèmes Littoraux Anthropisés (UMR 6217) CNRS-IFREMER, Université de La Rochelle, Avenue Michel Crépeau, 17042, La Rochelle, France

    J. C. Auguet, H. Montanié, H. J. Hartmann & D. Delmas

  2. Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls sur mer (UMR 7621) CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, BP 44, 66651, Banyuls sur mer, France

    P. Lebaron & P. Catala

  3. Unitat de Limnologia, Departament d’Ecologia Continental, Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes-CSIC, 17300, Blanes, Spain

    E. O. Casamayor

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  1. J. C. Auguet
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Correspondence to H. Montanié.

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Table S1

Simple (r, Pearson) correlation coefficients between microbial abundance (virus or bacteria) and environmental parameters for whole data set of each experiment separately. Only significant correlations are shown; ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05. (DOC 35.0 KB)

Table S2

Simple linear regression between viral and bacterial abundance: Log (virus) = f (Log (bacteria)); r 2, determination coefficient; p, probability. Bold values correspond to significant relationships. Ec, control flask; V E or V A, viral concentrate from station E or A; V Einact or V Ainact, inactivated concentrate. (DOC 34.0 KB)

Figure S1

Location of sampling stations in the Marennes-Oléron Basin (station E) and the Charente River (station A). (PDF 185 KB)

Figure S2

Net Bacterial population Increase (NBI) calculated in all treatments for the June and July experiment. Ec: control flask; VE or VA: viral concentrate from station E or A, VEinact or VAinact: inactivated concentrate. (PDF 15.2 KB)

Figure S3

Nutrients and virus-to-bacteria ratio variations in batch cultures during 90 h in February, March, June and July 2004. Ec, Control flask; V E or V A, viral concentrate from station E or A; V Einact or V Ainact, inactivated concentrate. (PDF 410 KB)

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Auguet, J.C., Montanié, H., Hartmann, H.J. et al. Potential Effect of Freshwater Virus on the Structure and Activity of Bacterial Communities in the Marennes-Oléron Bay (France). Microb Ecol 57, 295–306 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-008-9428-1

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