1. Bacterial symbiont subpopulations have different roles in a deep-sea symbiosis
- Author
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Mareike Meister, Horst Felbeck, Uwe Völker, Stefan M. Sievert, Rabea Schlüter, Dörte Becher, Thomas Schweder, Stephanie Markert, Petra Hildebrandt, Manuel Kleiner, Jan Pané-Farré, Florian Bonn, Tjorven Hinzke, and Christian Hentschker
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,animal structures ,host-microbe interaction ,QH301-705.5 ,cell heterogeneity ,Science ,Cellular differentiation ,030106 microbiology ,Biology ,Bacterial Physiological Phenomena ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Hydrothermal Vents ,Symbiosis ,Animals ,Biology (General) ,Phylotype ,Differential centrifugation ,Microbiology and Infectious Disease ,Bacteria ,General Immunology and Microbiology ,Host (biology) ,General Neuroscience ,fungi ,food and beverages ,Polychaeta ,sulfur-oxidizing symbiont ,General Medicine ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,symbiosis ,cell differentiation ,030104 developmental biology ,Riftia pachyptila ,chemistry ,DNA endoreduplication ,Evolutionary biology ,Medicine ,bacteria ,Other ,Intracellular ,DNA ,Research Article - Abstract
The hydrothermal vent tubewormRiftia pachyptilahosts a single 16S rRNA phylotype of intracellular sulfur-oxidizing symbionts, which vary considerably in cell morphology and exhibit a remarkable degree of physiological diversity and redundancy, even in the same host. To elucidate whether multiple metabolic routes are employed in the same cells or rather in distinct symbiont subpopulations, we enriched symbionts according to cell size by density gradient centrifugation. Metaproteomic analysis, microscopy, and flow cytometry strongly suggest thatRiftiasymbiont cells of different sizes represent metabolically dissimilar stages of a physiological differentiation process: While small symbionts actively divide and may establish cellular symbiont-host interaction, large symbionts apparently do not divide, but still replicate DNA, leading to DNA endoreduplication. Moreover, in large symbionts, carbon fixation and biomass production seem to be metabolic priorities. We propose that this division of labor between smaller and larger symbionts benefits the productivity of the symbiosis as a whole.
- Published
- 2021
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