In May 2023 we carried out a infection progression experiment together with dr. Tinkara Tinta and master student on ERASMUS internship Annaëlle Boeffel.
The experiment consisted of 3 control and 3 virus treatment batches of 1 liter. We measured DOC, nutrients, diatom, bacterial abundance, viral abundance, bacterial 16S tags, and diatom transcriptomes. The data is currently being analyzed and a qPCR assay for the determination of viral loads in the experiment is being tested. Here’s a pic of how the cultures looked after the experiment:
The first three are virus treatments and the last three are controls. There is clearly much more “brown” color in the controls, whereas the viral treatments look diluted and discolored. Stay tuned!