Morphological characterization of virus-like particles in coral reef sponges

PeerJ

article

Cecília Pascelli¹  Patrick W. Laffy¹  Marija Kupresanin⁴  Timothy Ravasi⁴  Nicole S. Webster¹ 

[1] Australian Institute of Marine Science;James Cook University;AIMS@JCU, Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University;KAUST Environmental Epigenetic Program ,(KEEP), Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences & Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology;Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, University of Queensland

关键词: Transmission Electron Microscopy;    Virus;    TEM;    VLP;    Marine sponges;    Great Barrier Reef;    GBR;    Red Sea;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.5625

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Marine sponges host complex microbial consortia that vary in their abundance, diversity and stability amongst host species. While our understanding of sponge-microbe interactions has dramatically increased over the past decade, little is known about how sponges and their microbial symbionts interact with viruses, the most abundant entities in the ocean. In this study, we employed three transmission electron microscopy (TEM) preparation methods to provide the first comprehensive morphological assessment of sponge-associated viruses. The combined approaches revealed 50 different morphologies of viral-like particles (VLPs) represented across the different sponge species. VLPs were visualized within sponge cells, within the sponge extracellular mesohyl matrix, on the sponge ectoderm and within sponge-associated microbes. Non-enveloped, non-tailed icosahedral VLPs were the most commonly observed morphotypes, although tailed bacteriophage, brick-shaped, geminate and filamentous VLPs were also detected. Visualization of sponge-associated viruses using TEM has confirmed that sponges harbor not only diverse communities of microorganisms but also diverse communities of viruses.

【 授权许可】

CC BY