Characterizing Sulfolobus spindle shaped viruses from Yellowstone National Park and Kamchatka, Russiaerizing

Viruses are important drivers of evolution for organisms across the three domains of life. We study how microbes co-evolve with their viruses using the model thermoacidophilic archaea Sulfolobus islandicus, which is found in hot springs around the world and is commonly infected by Sulfolobus spindle-shaped viruses (SSVs). SSV9, from Kamchatka, Russia, exhibits a unique phenotype that causes non-infected S. islandicus cells to go dormant and die while infected cells survive. To explore if this phenotype is broadly functional, we tested the effect of SSV9 on multiple S. islandicus strains and Sulfolobus species. We also investigated whether other SSVs from Kamchatka or Yellowstone National Park possess the ability to inhibit the growth of non-infected cells. The results from these experiments inform us of how broadly applicable the killing of non-infected cells is among SSVs and provide an improved understanding of the ways that viruses affect the evolution of their microbial hosts.Ope