Symbiosis insights through metagenomic analysis of a microbial consortium.
Symbioses between bacteria and eukaryotes are ubiquitous, yet our understanding of the interactions driving these associations is hampered by our inability to cultivate most host-associated microbes. Here we use a metagenomic approach to describe four co-occurring symbionts from the marine oligochaete Olavius algarvensis, a worm lacking a mouth, gut and nephridia. Shotgun sequencing and metabolic pathway reconstruction revealed that the symbionts are sulphur-oxidizing and sulphate-reducing bacteria, all of which are capable of carbon fixation, thus providing the host with multiple sources of nutrition. Molecular evidence for the uptake and recycling of worm waste products by the symbionts suggests how the worm could eliminate its excretory system, an adaptation unique among annelid worms. We propose a model that describes how the versatile metabolism within this symbiotic consortium provides the host with an optimal energy supply as it shuttles between the upper oxic and lower anoxic coastal sediments that it inhabits.
Woyke
Tanja
T
DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, California 94598, USA.
Teeling
Hanno
H
Ivanova
Natalia N
NN
Huntemann
Marcel
M
Richter
Michael
M
Gloeckner
Frank Oliver
FO
Boffelli
Dario
D
Anderson
Iain J
IJ
Barry
Kerrie W
KW
Shapiro
Harris J
HJ
Szeto
Ernest
E
Kyrpides
Nikos C
NC
Mussmann
Marc
M
Amann
Rudolf
R
Bergin
Claudia
C
Ruehland
Caroline
C
Rubin
Edward M
EM
Dubilier
Nicole
N
D000818:Animals; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D004063:Digestion / Q000502:physiology; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D004777:Environment; D023281:Genomics; D008829:Microbiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009835:Oligochaeta / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology*; D020560:Proteobacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*
D002244:Carbon