The Impact of Lytic Viruses on Bacterial Carbon Metabolism in a Temperate Freshwater Reservoir (Naussac, France)

Abstract

In aquatic systems, the impact of the viral regulation of bacterial carbon metabolism (BCM) is often overlooked compared with nutrient supply. To address this gap, an investigation was conducted in the euphotic and aphotic zones of a mesotrophic freshwater reservoir (Naussac, France) to assess the relative influence of lytic viral infection on key bacterial metabolic parameters, specifically bacterial production (BP) and respiration (BR), as indicators of BCM. Measured using flow cytometry, the abundance of viral sub-groups (V1–V3) exhibited a consistent pattern in tandem with their bacterial hosts across both time and space. A more significant relationship between bacterial and viral parameters than between physicochemical factors suggested a prevailing internal control mechanism that was potentially driven by viral lysis. Viral-mediated bacterial mortality up to 65% was evident in the euphotic zone. The observed variation in BCM (ranging from 7% to 32%) was explained by an uncoupling between BR and BP. Notably, BR was significantly higher (three-fold) than BP in bacterial communities subjected to low in situ phosphate concentrations (<0.5 µM P) and high nutrient stoichiometric ratios (N:P > 60, C:P > 900). An antagonistic relationship between lytic viruses and BCM, whereby the repression of bacterial growth results in elevated respiratory demands, could potentially be attributed to substrate availability constraints.