Effect of nutrient addition and environmental factors on prophage induction in natural populations of marine Synechococcus species

A series of experiments were conducted with samples collected in both Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico to assess the impact of nutrient addition on cyanophage induction in natural populations of Synechococcus sp. The samples were virus reduced to decrease the background level of cyanophage and then either left untreated or amended with nitrate, ammonium, urea, or phosphate. Replicate samples were treated with mitomycin C to stimulate cyanophage induction. In five of the nine total experiments performed, cyanophage induction was present in the non-nutrient-amended control samples. Stimulation of cyanophage induction in response to nutrient addition (phosphate) occurred in only one Tampa Bay sample. Nutrient additions caused a decrease in lytic (or control) phage production in three of three offshore stations, in one of three estuarine experiments, and in a lysogenic marine Synechococcus in culture. These results suggest that the process of cyanophage induction as an assay of Synechococcus lysogeny was not inorganically nutrient limited, at least in the samples examined. More importantly, it was observed that the level of cyanophage induction (cyanophage milliliter(-1)) was inversely correlated to Synechococcus and cyanophage abundance. Thus, the intensity of the prophage induction response is defined by ambient population size and cyanophage abundance. This corroborates prior observations that lysogeny in Synechococcus is favored during times of low host abundance.