Viruses and Phytoplankton: a Microbial Arms Race

Typically, there are more viruses in a cup of seawater or lake water than people on Earth! Don't worry about going out swimming, though. The absolute majority of those only infect microbial life. For the most part, each virus type is specific to a host type. Viruses are estimated to kill 20-30% of all aquatic single-celled organisms each day, and that is actually a good thing as it helps maintain a healthy ecosystem balance. Viruses can even be food for some microbes. Viruses and their hosts live in a constant evolutionary arms race, where the viruses try to catch (infect) their hosts, and the hosts try to escape (be immune) to infection. In this semilab, we will grow marine and freshwater microscopic algae (phytoplankton) and run experiments challenging them with some viruses to explore if they are susceptible (killed), escape infection, or eat the viruses. We will use known phytoplankton viruses and try to isolate novel viruses from Mudge Pond. We will work together as a team of scientists to develop hypotheses, design experiments to test those, and interpret the results. Our research tools will include microscopes, colorimetric visualization, graph plotting, and some statistics. Join us to discover the secret world of aquatic viruses and become a virologist!