Vardi Assaf, Van Mooy Benjamin A S, Fredricks Helen F, Popendorf Kimberly J, Ossolinski Justin E, Haramaty Liti, Bidle Kay D
Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Group, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
Science. 2009 Nov 6;326(5954):861-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1177322.
Marine viruses that infect phytoplankton are recognized as a major ecological and evolutionary driving force, shaping community structure and nutrient cycling in the marine environment. Little is known about the signal transduction pathways mediating viral infection. We show that viral glycosphingolipids regulate infection of Emiliania huxleyi, a cosmopolitan coccolithophore that plays a major role in the global carbon cycle. These sphingolipids derive from an unprecedented cluster of biosynthetic genes in Coccolithovirus genomes, are synthesized de novo during lytic infection, and are enriched in virion membranes. Purified glycosphingolipids induced biochemical hallmarks of programmed cell death in an uninfected host. These lipids were detected in coccolithophore populations in the North Atlantic, which highlights their potential as biomarkers for viral infection in the oceans.
感染浮游植物的海洋病毒被认为是一种主要的生态和进化驱动力，塑造着海洋环境中的群落结构和营养物质循环。关于介导病毒感染的信号转导途径，我们所知甚少。我们发现病毒糖鞘脂调节赫氏颗石藻的感染，赫氏颗石藻是一种在全球碳循环中起主要作用的世界性颗石藻。这些鞘脂源自颗石藻病毒基因组中一个前所未有的生物合成基因簇，在裂解感染期间从头合成，并在病毒粒子膜中富集。纯化的糖鞘脂在未感染的宿主中诱导了程序性细胞死亡的生化特征。在北大西洋的颗石藻种群中检测到了这些脂质，这突出了它们作为海洋中病毒感染生物标志物的潜力。
