Chemosynthetic symbionts of marine invertebrate animals are capable of nitrogen fixation

Chemosynthetic symbioses are partnerships between invertebrate animals and chemosynthetic bacteria. The latter are the primary producers, providing most of the organic carbon needed for the animal host's nutrition. We sequenced genomes of the chemosynthetic symbionts from the lucinid bivalve Lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature microbiology Vol. 2; no. 1; p. 16195
Main Authors: Petersen, Jillian M., Kemper, Anna, Gruber-Vodicka, Harald, Cardini, Ulisse, van der Geest, Matthijs, Kleiner, Manuel, Bulgheresi, Silvia, Mußmann, Marc, Herbold, Craig, Seah, Brandon K.B., Antony, Chakkiath Paul, Liu, Dan, Belitz, Alexandra, Weber, Miriam
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 24.10.2016
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
631/158/855
631/326/171/1878
631/326/2565/547
631/326/47
Animals
Aquatic Organisms - microbiology
Bacteria - enzymology
Bacteria - genetics
Biodiversity and Ecology
Bivalvia - microbiology
Chromadorea - microbiology
Ecology, environment
Ecosystems
Environmental Sciences
Gene Expression Profiling
Genomes
Global Changes
Infectious Diseases
Invertebrates
Life Sciences
Loripes lucinalis
Medical Microbiology
Microbiology
Nitrogen
Nitrogen Fixation
Nitrogenase
Nitrogenase - genetics
Parasitology
Proteome - analysis
Proteomics
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Symbionts
Symbiosis
Virology
ISSN:2058-5276, 2058-5276
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Summary:Chemosynthetic symbioses are partnerships between invertebrate animals and chemosynthetic bacteria. The latter are the primary producers, providing most of the organic carbon needed for the animal host's nutrition. We sequenced genomes of the chemosynthetic symbionts from the lucinid bivalve Loripes lucinalis and the stilbonematid nematode Laxus oneistus . The symbionts of both host species encoded nitrogen fixation genes. This is remarkable as no marine chemosynthetic symbiont was previously known to be capable of nitrogen fixation. We detected nitrogenase expression by the symbionts of lucinid clams at the transcriptomic and proteomic level. Mean stable nitrogen isotope values of Loripes lucinalis were within the range expected for fixed atmospheric nitrogen, further suggesting active nitrogen fixation by the symbionts. The ability to fix nitrogen may be widespread among chemosynthetic symbioses in oligotrophic habitats, where nitrogen availability often limits primary productivity. The chemosynthetic symbionts of the bivalve Loripes lucinalis and nematode Laxus oneistus are found to encode nitrogen fixation genes, with evidence for active nitrogen fixation.
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PMCID: PMC6872982
ISSN:2058-5276
2058-5276
DOI:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.195