FIG 9.
Faustovirus mariensis is not able to circumvent Vermamoeba vermiformis encystment. (A) Scheme highlighting the experimental strategy and results of an experiment testing the ability of F. mariensis and Tupanvirus to circumvent V. vermiformis encystment. In I and III, the encystment solution Neff was added prior to virus inoculation. In II and IV, the viruses were inoculated before Neff addition. (B) F. mariensis and (C) Tupanvirus genome quantification, in supernatant and cysts, for each experimental scenario analyzed (I to IV), by qPCR. The relative quantification was performed with the ΔCT method, and results were presented as arbitrary units (log10). (D) Quantification of the viability of cysts (0.4% trypan blue) produced from infections under different scenarios (I to IV). (E) Relative quantification of the expression of two serine proteinase mRNA isotypes present in V. vermiformis upon infection (MOI of 10) with F. mariensis or Tupanvirus or upon Neff treatment. The quantification was performed 5 h postinfection or after Neff inoculation. Error bars indicate SDs. The statistical significance was calculated using a two-tailed 2-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and Tukey’s range test, using GraphPad Prism. ***, P < 0.001. These experiments were performed three times in triplicate.