A proof for the occurence of an aerial infection of algae bloom by bacteria. Airborne algicidal bacteria may control cell fate in the oceanic blooms

Ocean microbes perform key functions in biogeochemical cycles triggering nutrient cycling. Recent studies indicated diverse types of algal-bacterial relations, including mutualistic and pathogenic interaction. However, the mechanism of bacterial dispersal in the marine ecosystem remained largely underexplored. Here we isolated an airborne algicidal bacterium, Roseovarius nubinhibens, emitted to the atmosphere as primary marine aerosol and collected above a coccolithophore bloom in the North Atlantic Ocean. The aerosolized bacteria remained infective and induced lysis of Emiliania huxleyi cultures. This suggests that the atmospheric transport of marine bacteria can be an effective mechanism to spread infection over large oceanic regions and may have an ecological role in regulating cell fate in algal blooms.