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Viral Chemotaxis of Paramecium Bursaria Altered by Algal Endosymbionts

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Abstract

Chemotaxis is widespread across many taxa and often aids resource acquisition or predator avoidance. Species interactions can modify the degree of movement facilitated by chemotaxis. In this study, we investigated the influence of symbionts on Paramecium bursaria’s chemotactic behavior toward chloroviruses. To achieve this, we performed choice experiments using chlorovirus and control candidate attractors (virus stabilization buffer and pond water). We quantified the movement of Paramecia grown with or without algal and viral symbionts toward each attractor. All Paramecia showed some chemotaxis toward viruses, but cells without algae and viruses showed the most movement toward viruses. Thus, the endosymbiotic algae (zoochlorellae) appeared to alter the movement of Paramecia toward chloroviruses, but it was not clear that ectosymbiotic viruses (chlorovirus) also had this effect. The change in behavior was consistent with a change in swimming speed, but a change in attraction remains possible. The potential costs and benefits of chemotactic movement toward chloroviruses for either the Paramecia hosts or its symbionts remain unclear.

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Data Availability

The datasets used in the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 1736030 (to JLVE, DDD, and JPD), the University of Nebraska—Lincoln Agricultural Research Division and the Office of Research and Economic Development (to DDD), the University of Nebraska Foundation Algal Virus Research Funds (JVE), and a University of Nebraska Layman Award (to JPD, DDD, and JLVE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68588-2083, USA

    Huy V. N. Ho, Miranda E. Salsbery & John P. DeLong

  2. Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68583-0722, USA

    David D. Dunigan, Irina V. Agarkova, Zeina Al Ameeli & James L. Van Etten

  3. Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68583-0900, USA

    David D. Dunigan, Irina V. Agarkova & James L. Van Etten

  4. Medical Technical Institutes, Middle Technical University, Baghdad, Iraq

    Zeina Al Ameeli

Authors
  1. Huy V. N. Ho
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  2. David D. Dunigan
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  3. Miranda E. Salsbery
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  4. Irina V. Agarkova
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  5. Zeina Al Ameeli
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  6. James L. Van Etten
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  7. John P. DeLong
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Contributions

Huy Ho, Miranda Salsbery, David Dunigan, James Van Etten, and John DeLong contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Huy Ho, Miranda Salsbery, Irina Agarkova, Zeina Al-Ameeli, David Dunigan, and John DeLong. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Huy Ho and John DeLong, and David Dunigan, James Van Etten, and Miranda Salsbery contributed to subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John P. DeLong.

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Ho, H.V.N., Dunigan, D.D., Salsbery, M.E. et al. Viral Chemotaxis of Paramecium Bursaria Altered by Algal Endosymbionts. Microb Ecol 86, 2904–2909 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-023-02292-w

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