Genome structure of a virus infecting the marine brown alga Ectocarpus siliculosus

We describe a procedure for the isolation of virus particles from the marine brown alga Ectocarpus siliculosus. Virus particles are composed of at least 13 different polypeptides, including two glycoproteins, and double-stranded DNA. A typical virus DNA preparation contains three fractions, namely linear DNA and circular DNA, each composed of about 320 kilobase pairs, as well as DNA fragments, 10 to 60 kilobase pairs in size. The large linear and the circular DNA contain single-stranded regions (average length: 2.9 kilobase). We propose that the native Ectocarpus virus genome is a circular DNA molecule whose double strand is interrupted by single-stranded regions. During the preparation procedure, the DNA circles tend to break at the single-stranded sites producing large linear as well as fragmented DNA.