Please reach out if you have any questions and/or feedback! : :) And: Please share 😉 Thanks to all collaborators: Chandni Sidhu, Yanlin Zhao, Andi Eich, Leonard Rößler, @cotoorellana.bsky.social@mpimarinemicrobio.bsky.social 8/8

🌍🌏🌎 Lats but not least, phage-infected SAR11 cells and zombie cells occurred globally. We detected them in all samples that we assessed (Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Ocean). 7/n

We believe the ribosomal RNA is a valuable resource for the production of new (dsDNA) phages. 🧬 This has been suggested by Matt Sullivan et al. but has not been shown yet ... 6/n

Do I see a zombie in the first microscopy image? No! It's a SAR11 cell from the environment. You can see the ribosomes (green), DNA (blue), and phage genes (magenta). I just liked that image a lot ... 5/n

But what are zombies?🧟‍♂️ In environmental samples and pure cultures, we detected phage-infected cells devoid of ribosomes. Zombies contributed up to >15% of total cell counts!😳 We visualized the ribosomes (CARD-FISH), DNA (DAPI), and phage genes (direct-geneFISH). 🔬 4/n

Turns out: We were right! ✅ When SAR11 cell division were highest, up to 19% of SAR11 cells were phage-infected (compared to <5% during low division rates). 3/n

In a previous study, we found that SAR11 divide rapidly 📈, while their cell counts decrease 📉 ... How is it possible? We speculated it's phages infecting SAR11. We designed FISH probes to visualize phage-infected cells. 🔬👀 The previous story: journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... 2/n

Hahaha. You are right! I just mentioned it, because I’d be curious about the reasons (with a potential ecological background). I would think someone has done this before … And if not, it could be a whole expedition by itself 🚢

This screams for “test them all! And compare the different methods”. I am sure there’s phages preferring the one over the other method :) but is this preference Pinkes to phylogeny/morphology/…? Good luck!

That’s the bare minimum … Thanks for sharing!