Characterization and function of the first antibiotic isolated from a vent organism: the extremophile metazoan Alvinella pompejana.
The emblematic hydrothermal worm Alvinella pompejana is one of the most thermo tolerant animal known on Earth. It relies on a symbiotic association offering a unique opportunity to discover biochemical adaptations that allow animals to thrive in such a hostile habitat. Here, by studying the Pompeii worm, we report on the discovery of the first antibiotic peptide from a deep-sea organism, namely alvinellacin. After purification and peptide sequencing, both the gene and the peptide tertiary structures were elucidated. As epibionts are not cultivated so far and because of lethal decompression effects upon Alvinella sampling, we developed shipboard biological assays to demonstrate that in addition to act in the first line of defense against microbial invasion, alvinellacin shapes and controls the worm's epibiotic microflora. Our results provide insights into the nature of an abyssal antimicrobial peptide (AMP) and into the manner in which an extremophile eukaryote uses it to interact with the particular microbial community of the hydrothermal vent ecosystem. Unlike earlier studies done on hydrothermal vents that all focused on the microbial side of the symbiosis, our work gives a view of this interaction from the host side.
Université de Lille1-CNRS UMR8198, Laboratoire GEPV, Ecoimmunology of Marine Annelids (EMA), Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
Aurélie
A
Tasiemski
Institute of Biochemistry, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany.
Sascha
S
Jung
Université de Lille1-CNRS UMR8198, Laboratoire GEPV, Ecoimmunology of Marine Annelids (EMA), Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
Céline
C
Boidin-Wichlacz
Université Pierre et Marie Curie-CNRS UMR7144, Laboratoire AD2M, Adaptation et Biologie des Invertébrés en Conditions Extrêmes (ABICE), Station Biologique, Roscoff, France.
Didier
D
Jollivet
Université de Lille1-CNRS UMR8198, Laboratoire GEPV, Ecoimmunology of Marine Annelids (EMA), Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
Virginie
V
Cuvillier-Hot
IFREMER, Centre de Brest, REM/EEP/LEP, Plouzané, France.
Florence
F
Pradillon
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America.
Costantino
C
Vetriani
Institute of Biochemistry, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany.
Oliver
O
Hecht
Otto Diels Institute for Organic Chemistry, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany.
Frank D
FD
Sönnichsen
Institute of Zoology, Zoophysiology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany.
Christoph
C
Gelhaus
Division of Systematic Proteome Research, Institute for Experimental Medicine, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany.
Chien-Wen
CW
Hung
Division of Systematic Proteome Research, Institute for Experimental Medicine, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany.
Andreas
A
Tholey
Institute of Zoology, Zoophysiology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany.
Matthias
M
Leippe
Institute of Biochemistry, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany.
Joachim
J
Grötzinger
Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Muséum National d'Histoires Naturelles CNRS BOREA IRD, Paris, France.
Françoise
F
Gaill
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D060086:Hydrothermal Vents / Q000382:microbiology; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011077:Polychaeta / Q000737:chemistry*; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary
D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides