{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T06:02:47Z","timestamp":1788328967047,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,3]],"date-time":"2025-11-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1762128000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":306,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000001","name":"National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["OCE-1840715, OCE-2418066"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["OCE-1840715, OCE-2418066"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000001","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000066","name":"National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["5P01ES028939-02"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["5P01ES028939-02"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000066","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000066","name":"National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2P01ES028939-06"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2P01ES028939-06"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000066","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000893","name":"Simons Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["735007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["735007"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000893","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Cyanobacterial blooms dominated by Microcystis spp. pose significant ecological challenges, including the release of toxins and disruption of aquatic food webs. Although Microcystis can exist as free-living single cells or within dense mucilaginous colonies, the drivers and consequences of colony formation remain unclear. Here, we integrated metatranscriptomic datasets from two Microcystis bloom events in Lake Taihu, China, to analyze and to support findings on the functional differences between colonial and single-cell Microcystis. Our results confirmed colony expression profiles were disproportionately enriched in Microcystis transcripts compared to other prokaryotic taxa. This pattern exhibits Black Queen-like dynamics, where Microcystis assumes greater metabolic and defensive roles while associated bacteria reduce their transcriptional activity. Concomitantly, viral infection strategies diverged by Microcystis community morphology: colony-associated cells expressed lysogeny-associated genes, whereas single cells exhibited increased signatures of lytic infection. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that Microcystis colonies foster conditions favorable to lysogen formation\u2014likely due to local high cell densities and the resulting advantage of superinfection immunity\u2014whereas solitary cells experience stronger lytic pressure. On a broader scale, our findings refine the understanding of bloom dynamics by identifying how community morphological states coincide with distinct host\u2013virus interactions. Cumulatively, this work underscores the importance of colony formation in shaping Microcystis ecology and highlights the need for further mechanistic studies to disentangle the complex interplay between phage infection modes, colony formation, and microbial community structure.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/ismejo\/wraf244","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]],"date-time":"2025-11-01T13:10:09Z","timestamp":1762002609000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Contrasting viral infection strategies for single cell and colonial\n                    <i>Microcystis<\/i>\n                    populations consistent with Black Queen dynamics"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Xuhui","family":"Huang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University , Shanghai 200438 ,","place":["PR China"]},{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville , Knoxville, TN 37996-0845 ,","place":["United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Emily E","family":"Chase","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville , Knoxville, TN 37996-0845 ,","place":["United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Brittany N","family":"Zepernick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville , Knoxville, TN 37996-0845 ,","place":["United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robbie M","family":"Martin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville , Knoxville, TN 37996-0845 ,","place":["United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lauren E","family":"Krausfeldt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville , Knoxville, TN 37996-0845 ,","place":["United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Helena L","family":"Pound","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville , Knoxville, TN 37996-0845 ,","place":["United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hanqi","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University , Shanghai 200438 ,","place":["PR China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zheng","family":"Zheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University , Shanghai 200438 ,","place":["PR 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