Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis of virus assemblages present in a hypersaline environment
- Beatriz Díez 1
- Josefa Antón Botella 2
- Núria Guixa Boixereu 1
- Carles Pedrós-Alió 1
- Francisco Rodríguez Valera
- 1 Department of Marine Biology and Oceanography, Institute of Marine Sciences, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
- 2 Division for Microbiology, University of Alicante, Spain
ISSN: 1618-1905
Año de publicación: 2000
Volumen: 3
Número: 3
Páginas: 159-164
Tipo: Artículo
Otras publicaciones en: International microbiology: official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology
Resumen
A method for analyzing virus assemblages in aquatic environments was developed and used for studying the highest-salinity ponds (from 13.4 to 35% salinity) from a multi-pond solar saltern in Alicante, Spain. The protocol consisted of a series of concentration and purification steps including tangential flow filtration and ultracentrifugation, followed by the preparation of total viral nucleic acids that were subsequently separated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. For every sample analyzed, a characteristic DNA pattern was obtained, whose complexity was related to viral diversity. The comparison of our results with a similar analysis carried out with marine virus assemblages shows that, as expected, the viral diversity corresponding to the analyzed hypersaline environment is considerably lower than that of a marine environment.