water drops meet a troubled sea

Project: Viral Transmission in the Dynamic Environment of Surface Microlayers and Rainwater (VIRTIDE)

Viruses of bacteria hold a distinct position at the boundary between the atmosphere and hydrosphere, or as significant elements of the atmosphere itself. They contribute to essential climate processes and carbon cycling by breaking down abundant hosts through infections and subsequent cell lysis. The project will make an important contribution to understand the ecology of viruses in understudied aquatic ecosystems.

Project information

Project manager
Janina Rahlff
Other project members
Julia Weissenbach, Linnaeus University
Bingli Clark Chai, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University; Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany
Financier
The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)
Timetable
1 Apr 2024–31 Mar 2028
Subject
Environmental science (Department of Biology and Environmental Science, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences)
Website
Vr.se/english/swecris.html?project=2023-03310_VR#
Rahlfflab.weebly.com

More about the project

Viruses in the sea-surface microlayer (SML) at the air-sea interface, being part of a community referred to as neuston, have mostly been neglected in SML research. The project Viral Transmission in the Dynamic Environment of Surface Microlayers and Rainwater (VIRTIDE) addresses important research questions regarding

  1. the temporal-spatial dynamics of viral-bacterial assemblages in visible marine surface films (“slicks”),
  2. the viral function as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes, and
  3. the nature, abundance, and sources of atmospheric phages and their potential for infecting sea surface microbiota after deposition with rainwater.

The objectives will be achieved by combining state-of-the-art techniques including metagenomics, virus-host infection histories inferred from CRISPR systems, flow cytometry, and cultivation. By filling these knowledge gaps, the project will make an important contribution to understand the ecology of viruses in understudied aquatic ecosystems.

The project is part of the research in the Linnaeus University Centre for Ecology and Evolution in Microbial model Systems (EEMiS) research group and the Linnaeus Knowledge Environment Water.

Staff