A tale of two chitons: is habitat specialisation linked to distinct associated bacterial communities?. Issue 3 (17th October 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Duperron, Sébastien; Pottier, Marie‐Anne; Léger, Nelly; Gaudron, Sylvie M.; Puillandre, Nicolas; Le, Stéphanie; Sigwart, Julia D.; Ravaux, Juliette; Zbinden, Magali
• Is Part Of: FEMS microbiology ecology. Volume 83:Issue 3(2013)
• Page Start: 552
• Page End: 567
• Publication Date: 2012-10-17
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1574-6941.12014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0168-6496

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="fem12014-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Although most chitons (<italic>Mollusca: Polyplacophora</italic>) are shallow‐water molluscs, diverse species also occur in deep‐sea habitats. We investigated the feeding strategies of two species, <italic>Leptochiton boucheti</italic> and <italic>Nierstraszella lineata</italic>, recovered on sunken wood sampled in the western Pacific, close to the Vanuatu Islands. The two species display distinctly different associations with bacterial partners. <italic>Leptochiton boucheti</italic> harbours <italic>Mollicutes</italic> in regions of its gut epithelium and has no abundant bacterium associated with its gill. <italic>Nierstraszella lineata</italic> displays no dense gut‐associated bacteria, but harbours bacterial filaments attached to its gill epithelium, related to the <italic>Deltaproteobacteria</italic> symbionts found in gills of the wood‐eating limpet <italic>Pectinodonta</italic> sp. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures and an absence of cellulolytic activity give evidence against a direct wood‐feeding diet; both species are secondary consumers within the wood food web. We suggest that the distinct associations with bacterial partners are linked to niche specialisations of the two species. <italic>Nierstraszella lineata</italic> is in a taxonomic family restricted to sunken wood and is possibly adapted to more anoxic conditions thanks to its gill‐associated bacteria. <italic>Leptochiton boucheti</italic> is phylogenetically more proximate to an ancestral form not specialised on wood and may itself be more of a generalist; this observation is congruent with its association with <italic>Mollicutes</italic>, a bacterial clade comprising gut‐associated bacteria occurring in several metazoan phyla.</p> </abstract>