In response to the comment that there would not be clear evidence where Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 came from:  It was isolated from a fresh water lake near Oakland, CA (USA).  See Stanier et al. Bacteriol. Rev. 1971;35:171–205.  And it would be useful to have a phage system that could be adapted as a gene transfer agent, so it is not that we have not been looking for a Synechocystis phage.

Dear Vamsi,

The following review article might be helpful.

FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2003 Apr;27(1):17-34.

Phages of the marine cyanobacterial picophytoplankton.

Mann NH1.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12697340

Abstract

Cyanobacteria of the genera Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus dominate the prokaryotic component of the picophytoplankton in the oceans. It is still less than 10 years since the discovery of phages that infect marine Synechococcus and the beginning of the characterisation of these phages and assessment of their ecological impact. Estimations of the contribution of phages to Synechococcus mortality are highly variable, but there is clear evidence that phages exert a significant selection pressure on Synechococcus community structure. In turn, there are strong selection pressures on the phage community, in terms of both abundance and composition. This review focuses on the factors affecting the diversity of cyanophages in the marine environment, cyanophage interactions with their hosts, and the selective pressures in the marine environment that affect cyanophage evolutionary biology.

Rafik

There are not many lytic phages that infect Synechocystis.  The group of Roy Curtiss tried to find phages that formed plaques in a Synechocystis lawn and had to work really hard (going to fairly dirty water from a nearby lake) to find anything, and even then it was at a very low titer.

My guess is that the reason why PCC6803-specific cyanophages have not been described is in the fact that this is essentially a laboratory strain and we have no clear evidence of its natural habitat from which one would attempt to isolate strain-specific cyanophages. Moreover, labs using PCC 6803 as a model/biotech cyanobacterium would probably not be too happy seeing a phage infecting their cultures uncontrolled.

Thank you for your valuable responses, six months ago, I began attempts to isolate phages of Synechocystis sp. isolated from a nearby lake and I have failed miserably. I have concentrated the viruses using tangential flow filteration and concentrated the viruses (from the same habitat). still could not find any lytic phages.

study of a cyanobacterium-phage system might yield valuable insights into the evolutionary history of the organism, and could help us design efficient bioprocesses.

In response to the comment that there would not be clear evidence where Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 came from:  It was isolated from a fresh water lake near Oakland, CA (USA).  See Stanier et al. Bacteriol. Rev. 1971;35:171–205.  And it would be useful to have a phage system that could be adapted as a gene transfer agent, so it is not that we have not been looking for a Synechocystis phage.

I fully agree with Wim, a specific cyanophage would be very useful for biotechnology. The Stainer paper only mentioned 'local samples of fresh water (ponds, streams, or reservoirs)' at Berkeley, which means phages could be just anywhere.

You would probably need to sample following cyanos blooms 

Yes, theoretically one could sample after blooms, but most of the cyanophages are host-specific and 6803 is not known to grow into blooms.

If you have the opportunity to translate the book from Russian language, I can send you pdf-file. The book "Cyanophages - viruses of cyanobacteria" by Mengul M.I. 1985.

 Екатерина Сергеевна Мирошниченко, Thank you ! please send the book i will try to get the book translated