Persistent mirusvirus infection in the marine protist Aurantiochytrium

Dudley Chung, Nikolaj Brask, Sari Matar, Lucie Gallot-Lavallée, Eric S. Pringle, Brett A. Duguay, Cédric Blais, Jessica Latimer, Ronie Haro, Claudio H. Slamovits, Ben Leyland, Joshua S. Rest, Jackie L. Collier, Craig McCormick and John M. Archibald ()
Additional contact information
Dudley Chung: Dalhousie University
Nikolaj Brask: Dalhousie University
Sari Matar: Dalhousie University
Lucie Gallot-Lavallée: Dalhousie University
Eric S. Pringle: Dalhousie University
Brett A. Duguay: Dalhousie University
Cédric Blais: Dalhousie University
Jessica Latimer: Dalhousie University
Ronie Haro: Dalhousie University
Claudio H. Slamovits: Dalhousie University
Ben Leyland: Stony Brook University
Joshua S. Rest: Stony Brook University
Jackie L. Collier: Stony Brook University
Craig McCormick: Dalhousie University
John M. Archibald: Dalhousie University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Mirusviruses are abundant and broadly distributed double-stranded (ds) DNA viruses recently discovered in marine metagenomic data. Their host range and ecological impact are unclear. The protist Aurantiochytrium limacinum possesses two mirusvirus-like genomic elements, one a circular episome (AurliV-1) and the other (AurliV-2) a chromosomal integrant. Here we show that genes in both genomes are expressed and viral particles containing mainly AurliV-1 DNA are produced under starvation conditions and when cells are cultured in standard growth medium. We detected viral particles of ~140 nm in the nucleus, in cytoplasmic vesicles, between the plasma membrane and cell wall, and in the extracellular environment. Of 67 AurliV-1-encoded proteins detected using proteomics, 45 are enriched under starvation conditions, including the structurally important major capsid and triplex proteins. Our results establish Aurantiochytrium as a model system for elucidating mirusvirus-host interactions and demonstrate persistent viral infection in a microbial eukaryote.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65172-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-65172-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65172-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().