The Effect of Viral Lysis on Light Absorption by the Black Sea Microalgae Tetraselmis viridis

Abstract

Using spectrophotometry, the effect of viral lysis on light absorption in a virus-infected culture of microalgae Tetraselmis viridis was studied compared with the growth of a control uninfected culture. Some methodological issues of conducting multi-day experiments have been worked out, considering the natural titers of algal viruses, equal volumes of composite microbiota (algal viruses, nutrient medium, and microalgae cultures), conditions (temperature and illumination) in the experiment and control with the prevention of the possibility of viral contamination of microalgae in the control. It was found in the dynamics of experiments that during destruction (lysis) of hosts (microalgae cells) by viruses there was an increase in the amount of dissolved organic matter.