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Expanding The Omics Repertoire For Model Studies On A Chlorella-Infecting Giant Virus, Samantha Coy

Doctoral Dissertations

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities in aquatic ecosystems. As top-down controls of plankton abundance and diversity, they are intrinsically linked to biogeochemical cycling, and by proxy, to global climate change. It is thus of great interest for researchers to understand the mechanics of viral infection and persistence among ecologically important phytoplankton assemblages. Viruses which infect eukaryotic algae are observed with diverse nucleic acid types, structures, and sizes, though most isolates to date bear large, dsDNA genomes comprised of genes normally only seen in cellular organisms. The Chlorella viruses are the model system for studying these entities, with many …