Intracellular Oceanospirillales inhabit the gills of the hydrothermal vent snail Alviniconcha with chemosynthetic, γ‐Proteobacterial symbionts. Issue 6 (14th July 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Beinart, R. A.; Nyholm, S. V.; Dubilier, N.; Girguis, P. R.
• Is Part Of: Environmental microbiology reports. Volume 6:Issue 6(2014)
• Page Start: 656
• Page End: 664
• Publication Date: 2014-07-14
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Environmental Microbiology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1758-2229.12183
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-2229

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Summary</title> <p>Associations between bacteria from the γ‐Proteobacterial order Oceanospirillales and marine invertebrates are quite common. Members of the Oceanospirillales exhibit a diversity of interactions with their various hosts, ranging from the catabolism of complex compounds that benefit host growth to attacking and bursting host nuclei. Here, we describe the association between a novel Oceanospirillales phylotype and the hydrothermal vent snail <italic>A</italic><italic>lviniconcha</italic>. <italic>A</italic><italic>lviniconcha</italic> typically harbour chemoautotrophic γ‐ or ε‐Proteobacterial symbionts inside their gill cells. Via fluorescence <italic>in situ</italic> hybridization and transmission electron microscopy, we observed an Oceanospirillales phylotype (named AOP for '<italic>A</italic><italic>lviniconcha</italic> Oceanospirillales phylotype') in membrane‐bound vacuoles that were separate from the known γ‐ or ε‐Proteobacterial symbionts. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, we surveyed 181 <italic>A</italic><italic>lviniconcha</italic> hosting γ‐Proteobacterial symbionts and 102 hosting ε‐Proteobacterial symbionts, and found that the population size of AOP was always minor relative to the canonical symbionts (median 0.53% of the total quantified 16S rRNA genes). Additionally, we detected AOP more frequently in <italic>A</italic><italic>lviniconcha</italic> hosting γ‐Proteobacterial symbionts than in those hosting ε‐Proteobacterial symbionts (96% and 5% of individuals respectively). The high incidence of AOP in γ‐Proteobacteria hosting <italic>A</italic><italic>lviniconcha</italic> implies that it could play a significant ecological role either as a host parasite or as an additional symbiont with unknown physiological capacities.</p> </abstract>