The Ecology of Vibriophages

This book focuses on viruses of a Vibrio species inorder to serve as a model for heterotrophic host-virus interactions in the marine environment. Theestimated 10^30 viruses in the ocean, if stretchedend to end, would span farther than the nearest 60galaxies. This massive virioplankton exertsignificant influence on marine phytoplankton andbacteria. These effects include the reduction ofproductivity through viral-mediated mortality, theshort-circuiting (virus shunt) of organic matterback into the dissolved pool through lysis products,mediating horizontal genetic exchange and lysogenicconversion, and influencing the richness andevenness (i.e.: overall diversity) of hostpopulations. It is the latter category of effectswhich are centrally addressed in this book: What canthe distribution and the diversity of both virus andhost populations tell us about the host-virusrelationship?

Autorentext

Born in Clare N.S., Canada, Dr. André Comeau obtained his BSc. (Hon.) in Biology from Acadia University (Wolfville N.S.) in 1998. He then pursued his Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver B.C.) until 2005. He is currently with the french Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

Klappentext
This book focuses on viruses of a Vibrio species in order to serve as a model for heterotrophic host- virus interactions in the marine environment. The estimated 10^30 viruses in the ocean, if stretched end to end, would span farther than the nearest 60 galaxies. This massive virioplankton exert significant influence on marine phytoplankton and bacteria. These effects include the reduction of productivity through viral-mediated mortality, the short-circuiting (virus shunt) of organic matter back into the dissolved pool through lysis products, mediating horizontal genetic exchange and lysogenic conversion, and influencing the richness and evenness (i.e.: overall diversity) of host populations. It is the latter category of effects which are centrally addressed in this book: What can the distribution and the diversity of both virus and host populations tell us about the host-virus relationship?