title: Characterization of the bacterial community of the chemically defended Hawaiian sacoglossan Elysia rufescens.
abstract: Sacoglossans are characterized by the ability to sequester functional chloroplasts from their algal diet through a process called kleptoplasty, enabling them to photosynthesize. The bacterial diversity associated with sacoglossans is not well understood. In this study, we coupled traditional cultivation-based methods with 454 pyrosequencing to examine the bacterial communities of the chemically defended Hawaiian sacoglossan Elysia rufescens and its secreted mucus. E. rufescens contains a defense molecule, kahalalide F, that is possibly of bacterial origin and is of interest because of its antifungal and anticancer properties. Our results showed that there is a diverse bacterial assemblage associated with E. rufescens and its mucus, with secreted mucus harboring higher bacterial richness than entire-E. rufescens samples. The most-abundant bacterial groups affiliated with E. rufescens and its mucus are Mycoplasma spp. and Vibrio spp., respectively. Our analyses revealed that the Vibrio spp. that were highly represented in the cultivable assemblage were also abundant in the culture-independent community. Epifluorescence microscopy and matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) were utilized to detect the chemical defense molecule kahalalide F on a longitudinal section of the sacoglossan.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Jeanette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: W Florian
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Fricke
authors.forename: Mark T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Hamann
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Esquenazi
authors.forename: Pieter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Dorrestein
authors.forename: Russell T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D049851:Gastropoda / Q000382:microbiology*; D009174:Mycoplasma / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; D014733:Vibrio / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S