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Applications and limitations of tea extract as a virucidal agent to assess the role of phage predation in soils

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Abstract

In marine ecosystems, phage predation (phage-mediated cell lysis) is an important driver of bacterial mortality through host cell death and nutrient cycling through the release of cell contents. Both of these impacts increase marine microbial diversity by increasing interspecific competition. By contrast, very little is known about the role of phage predation in terrestrial ecosystems. A recent field study in Barrow, AK found phage predation to be a key factor controlling terrestrial bacterial population dynamics in Arctic soils. When phage abundance was artificially reduced using a tea extract, antiphage treatment, bacterial abundance, and respiration increased accordingly, suggesting top-down control by phages. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of phage predation in temperate soil ecosystems. Laboratory-scale experiments confirmed the potent antiphage properties of tea extracts. However, field experiments conducted at two discrete sites (upland and wetland) yielded little evidence that top-down control by phage predation was significant in temperate soils.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by William & Mary Honors Funding to KRH provided by individual donors Dr. John Sherwood, Ms. Margery Daughtry, Mr. Ted Dintersmith, and Ms. Janet Bouland and by a grant to KEW from the Jeffress Memorial Trust (J-988). We would like to thank Carl Zimmerman at Chesapeake Biological Laboratory for performing the DOC analyses and M.A. Saxton for helping to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Biology, The College of William & Mary, 2127 Integrated Science Center, Williamsburg, VA, 22185, USA

    Kaitlin R. Helsley, Theresa M. Brown, Kevin Furlong & Kurt E. Williamson

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  1. Kaitlin R. Helsley
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  2. Theresa M. Brown
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  4. Kurt E. Williamson
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Correspondence to Kurt E. Williamson.

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Helsley, K.R., Brown, T.M., Furlong, K. et al. Applications and limitations of tea extract as a virucidal agent to assess the role of phage predation in soils. Biol Fertil Soils 50, 263–274 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-013-0855-x

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