title: Diversity and function of epibiotic microbial communities on the galatheid crab, Shinkaia crosnieri.
abstract: The galatheid crab, Shinkaia crosnieri (Decapoda: Galatheidae), forms dense colonies in the Iheya North and Hatoma Knoll deep-sea hydrothermal fields and has numerous setae covered with filamentous epibiotic microorganisms. Molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that the epibiotic communities in S. crosnieri consisted mainly of yet-uncultivated phylotypes within Epsilonproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria in both hydrothermal vent fields. Uptake experiments using (13)C-labeled tracers clearly demonstrated that both H(13)CO(3)(-) and (13)CH(4) were assimilated into not only the epibiotic microbial communities associated with the setae, but also the epibiont-free tissue of living S. crosnieri. In addition, the incorporation of H(13)CO(3)(-) into the microbial cells was strongly stimulated by the presence of reduced sulfur compounds but not by H(2). In conclusion, the uptake experiments suggested that sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic and methanotrophic production by the epibionts provides the nutrition for S. crosnieri.
authors.affiliation: Subsurface Geobiology Advanced Research Team (SUGAR), Extremobiosphere Research Program (XBR), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 2–15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka 237–0061.
authors.forename: Tomo-O
authors.initials: TO
authors.lastname: Watsuji
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuchida
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Toki
authors.forename: Akinari
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hirota
authors.forename: Urumu
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Tsunogai
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D033381:Anomura / Q000382:microbiology*; D044822:Biodiversity; D052837:Chemoautotrophic Growth; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020560:Proteobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology; D012758:Shellfish / Q000382:microbiology*; D013455:Sulfur / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D013455:Sulfur