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Virioplankton community structure along a salinity gradient in a solar saltern

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Abstract

The virioplankton community structure along a salinity gradient from near seawater (40‰) to saturated sodium chloride brine (370‰) in a solar saltern was investigated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Viral populations with genome sizes varying from 10 kb to 533 kb were detected. The viral community structure changed along the salinity gradient. Cluster analysis of the viral genome-banding pattern resulted in two main clusters. The virioplankton diversity within the samples with salinity from 40‰ to 150‰ was on the same cluster of a cladogram. The other group consisted of virioplankton from samples with salinity above 220‰. The virioplankton diversity in the different samples was calculated using the Shannon index. The diversity index demonstrated an increase in diversity in the samples along the gradient from 40‰ to 150‰ salinity, followed by a decrease in the diversity index along the rest of the salinity gradient. These results demonstrate how viral diversity changes from habitats that are considered one of the most common (seawater) to habitats that are extreme in salt concentrations (saturated sodium brine). The diversity index was highest in the environments that lie in between the most extreme and the most common.

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Acknowledgments

Øivind Enger provided valuable and useful comments on the manuscript. Svein Norland is thanked for providing the software used for statistical analysis and for discussions on the interpretation of the results. This work was financed by the EC through contract MAS3-CT97-0154 "MIDAS" and from The Research Council of Norway (project no. 113037/120 and 121425/420).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Bergen, Jahnebakken 5, 5020, Bergen, Norway

    Ruth-Anne Sandaa, Evy Foss Skjoldal & Gunnar Bratbak

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  1. Ruth-Anne Sandaa
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  2. Evy Foss Skjoldal
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  3. Gunnar Bratbak
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Correspondence to Ruth-Anne Sandaa.

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Communicated by W.D. Grant

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Sandaa, RA., Foss Skjoldal, E. & Bratbak, G. Virioplankton community structure along a salinity gradient in a solar saltern. Extremophiles 7, 347–351 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-003-0328-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-003-0328-5

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