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Isolation and characterization of phage–host systems from the Baltic Sea ice

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Abstract

In search for sea ice bacteria and their phages from the Baltic Sea ice, two ice samples were collected from land-fast ice in a south-west Finland coastal site in February and March 2011. Bacteria were isolated from the melted sea ice samples and phages were screened from the same samples for 43 purified isolates. Plaque-producing phages were found for 15 bacterial isolates at 3 °C. Ten phage isolates were successfully plaque purified and eight of them were chosen for particle purification to analyze their morphology and structural proteins. Phage 1/32 infecting an isolate affiliated to phylum Bacteroidetes (Flavobacterium sp.) is a siphovirus and six phages infecting isolates affiliated to γ-Proteobacteria (Shewanella sp.) hosts were myoviruses. Cross titrations between the hosts showed that all studied phages are host specific. Phage solutions, host growth and phage infection were tested in different temperatures revealing phage temperature tolerance up to 45 °C, whereas phage infection was in most of the cases retarded above 15 °C. This study is the first to report isolation and cultivation of ice bacteria and cold-active phages from the Baltic Sea ice.

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Abbreviations

BSA:

Bovine serum albumin

DGGE:

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

DOM:

Dissolved organic matter

dsDNA:

Double-stranded DNA

PEG:

Polyethylene glycol

Pfu:

Plaque forming units

PVDF:

Polyvinylidene difluoride

SW:

South-west

TEM:

Transmission electron microscopy

TGGE:

Temperature gradient gel electrophoresis

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Acknowledgments

We thank Sari Korhonen for technical assistance. This study was funded by Onni Talas foundation and Walter and Andrée de Nottbeck foundation (AML, JMR) and University of Helsinki three-year grant 2010–2012 (ER). All the field work was carried out at Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki whilst the office and laboratory facilities for the isolation work were provided by The Finnish Environmental Institute (SYKE), Marine Research Centre. We thank Academy of Finland (grant 271413) and University of Helsinki for the support to EU ESFRI Instruct Centre for Virus Production and Purification used in this study. This study is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Kielo Haahtela.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Anne-Mari Luhtanen & Elina Roine

  2. Finnish Environment Institute, Marine Research Centre, Helsinki, Finland

    Anne-Mari Luhtanen, Eeva Eronen-Rasimus, Hermanni Kaartokallio, Janne-Markus Rintala & Riitta Autio

  3. Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki, Hanko, Finland

    Anne-Mari Luhtanen & Janne-Markus Rintala

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Eeva Eronen-Rasimus & Janne-Markus Rintala

Authors
  1. Anne-Mari Luhtanen
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  2. Eeva Eronen-Rasimus
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  3. Hermanni Kaartokallio
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  4. Janne-Markus Rintala
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  5. Riitta Autio
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  6. Elina Roine
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Correspondence to Elina Roine.

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Communicated by L. Huang.

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Luhtanen, AM., Eronen-Rasimus, E., Kaartokallio, H. et al. Isolation and characterization of phage–host systems from the Baltic Sea ice. Extremophiles 18, 121–130 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-013-0604-y

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