In order to establish whether the phenomenon of light-dependent adsorption is wavelength dependent, cyanophage adsorption kinetics Src inhibitor were measured using S-PM2 and Synechococcus sp. WH7803 incubated under illumination at different wavelengths. No marked differences in the phage adsorption kinetics were observed when samples were illuminated with blue, green or yellow light compared with the white light (Fig. 2). However, cyanophage adsorption was significantly reduced under red light illumination. This could suggest a relationship

with the efficiency of light absorption by the host as red light cannot be efficiently harvested by phycoerythrin-rich marine cyanobacteria as they have absorption maxima see more spanning blue and green wavelengths (between 420 and 570 nm) (Ong & Glazer, 1991; Swanson et al., 1991). This wavelength-dependent adsorption pattern led us to test whether the phage requires active host photosynthesis. In order to investigate whether the photosynthetic activity of the host plays a role in S-PM2 light-dependent adsorption to Synechococcus sp. WH7803, the chemical inhibitors, DCMU, which blocks photosystem II-dependent electron flow (Metz et al., 1986), and CCCP, which abolishes oxidative phosphorylation (Raven & Glidewell, 1975), were used to treat cells before phage adsorption. Kinetics of phage adsorption similar to that of treated and control cells was observed over a 3-h time period (Fig.

3a). This demonstrates that DCMU and CCCP treatment of the host cell does not influence S-PM2 adsorption. The

two control samples were included in this experiment; control 1 used nontreated cells and control 2 was the same as control 1, except for the inclusion of ethanol at a concentration of 0.5% v/v. The same experiment was repeated with dark-incubated samples, and similarly restricted phage adsorption (10–15%) was observed in all cases (Fig. 3b). This demonstrates that although light-dependent adsorption depends on those wavelengths that would support photosynthesis, in fact, host 6-phosphogluconolactonase photosynthesis is not required for adsorption. It is well established that cyanobacteria possess an endogenous 24-h circadian clock, which regulates cell division, nitrogen fixation, photosynthesis, amino acid uptake, carbohydrate synthesis and respiration (for a review, see Dong & Golden, 2008), and Synechococcus sp. WH7803 has been demonstrated to be readily entrained to a 24-h LD cycle (Sweeney & Borgese, 1989). Consequently, given the light-dependent adsorption of S-PM2 and other phages, it was important to establish whether the circadian rhythm would influence adsorption. S-PM2 adsorption to cells sampled from six different time points (three from the dark period, three from the light period) over a 12–12-h LD cycle in an entrained culture exhibited the same pattern: ∼90% adsorption in the light and ∼10% adsorption in the dark (Fig. 4).