Infection by the 'photosynthetic' phage S-PM2 induces increased synthesis of phycoerythrin in Synechococcus sp. WH7803.

Phycoerythrin-containing Synechococcus strains are unicellular cyanobacteria that are of great ecological importance in the marine environment. These organisms are known to be susceptible to infection by cyanophages (viruses that infect cyanobacteria). The infection cycle takes several hours and during this time the cyanophages may potentially modify the cyanobacterial light-harvesting apparatus. This study based on a model system consisting of Synechococcus sp. WH7803 and cyanophage S-PM2 revealed a progressive increase in the content of phycoerythrin per cell and per phycobilisome postinfection using absorption and emission spectrophotometry and sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. An increased cellular content of chlorophyll a was also revealed using absorption spectrophotometry. The transcript levels of the phycoerythrin-coding operons, mpeBA and cpeBA, were found to increase after phage infection using quantitative real-time PCR. This phage-induced increase in light-harvesting capacity could potentially increase the photosynthetic activity of the host to satisfy the phage's energy demand for reproduction.