Summary Phosphate (PO 4 ) is an important limiting nutrient in marine environments. Marine cyanobacteria scavenge PO 4 using the high‐affinity periplasmic phosphate binding protein PstS. The pstS gene has recently been identified in genomes of cyanobacterial viruses as well. Here, we analyse genes encoding transporters in genomes from viruses that infect eukaryotic phytoplankton. We identified inorganic PO 4 transporter‐encodi...