Viral infection impacts the 3D subcellular structure of the abundant marine diatom Guinardia delicatula

Viruses are key players in marine ecosystems where they infect abundant marine microbes. RNA viruses are emerging as key members of the marine virosphere. They have recently been identified as a potential source of mortality in diatoms, a group of microalgae that accounts for roughly 40% of the primary production in the ocean. Despite their likely importance, their impacts on host populations and ecosystems remain difficult to assess. In this study, we introduce an innovative approach that combines automated 3D confocal microscopy with quantitative image analysis and physiological measurements to expand our understanding of viral infection. We followed different stages of infection of the bloom-forming diatom Guinardia delicatula by the RNA virus GdelRNAV-04 until the complete lysis of the host. From 20h after infection, we observed quantifiable changes in subcellular host morphology and biomass. Our microscopy monitoring also showed that viral infection of G. delicatula induced the formation of auxospores as a probable defense strategy against viruses. Our method enables the detection of discriminative morphological features on the subcellular scale and at high throughput for comparing populations, making it a promising approach for the quantification of viral infections in the field in the future.