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Physical proximity may promote lateral acquisition of bacterial symbionts in vesicomyid clams.

ABSTRACT: Vesicomyid clams harbor intracellular sulfur-oxidizing bacteria that are predominantly maternally inherited and co-speciate with their hosts. Genome recombination and the occurrence of non-parental strains were recently demonstrated in symbionts. However, mechanisms favoring such events remain to be identified. In this study, we investigated symbionts in two phylogenetically distant vesicomyid species, Christineconcha regab and Laubiericoncha chuni, which sometimes co-occur at a cold-seep site in the Gulf of Guinea. We showed that each of the two species harbored a single dominant bacterial symbiont strain. However, for both vesicomyid species, the symbiont from the other species was occasionally detected in the gills using fluorescence in situ hybridization and gene sequences analyses based on six symbiont marker genes. Symbiont strains co-occurred within a single host only at sites where both host species were found; whereas one single symbiont strain was detected in C. regab specimens from a site where no L. chuni individuals had been observed. These results suggest that physical proximity favored the acquisition of non-parental symbiont strains in Vesicomyidae. Over evolutionary time, this could potentially lead to genetic exchanges among symbiont species and eventually symbiont displacement. Symbiont densities estimated using 3D fluorescence in situ hybridization varied among host species and sites, suggesting flexibility in the association despite the fact that a similar type of metabolism is expected in all symbionts.

SUBMITTER: Decker C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3704533 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundTwo Calyptogena clam intracellular obligate symbionts, Ca. Vesicomyosocius okutanii (Vok; C. okutanii symbiont) and Ca. Ruthia magnifica (Rma; C. magnifica symbiont), have small genomes (1.02 and 1.16 Mb, respectively) with low G+C contents (31.6% and 34.0%, respectively) and are thought to be in an ongoing stage of reductive genome evolution (RGE). They lack recA and some genes for DNA repair, including mutY. The loss of recA and mutY is thought to contribute to the stabilization of their genome architectures and GC bias, respectively. To understand how these genes were lost from the symbiont genomes, we surveyed these genes in the genomes from 10 other Calyptogena clam symbionts using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).ResultsPhylogenetic trees reconstructed using concatenated 16S and 23S rRNA gene sequences showed that the symbionts formed two clades, clade I (symbionts of C. kawamurai, C. laubieri, C. kilmeri, C. okutanii and C. soyoae) and clade II (those of C. pacifica, C. fausta, C. nautilei, C. stearnsii, C. magnifica, C. fossajaponica and C. phaseoliformis). recA was detected by PCR with consensus primers for recA in the symbiont of C. phaseoliformis. A detailed homology search revealed a remnant recA in the Rma genome. Using PCR with a newly designed primer set, intact recA or its remnant was detected in clade II symbionts. In clade I symbionts, the recA coding region was found to be mostly deleted.In the Rma genome, a pseudogene of mutY was found. Using PCR with newly designed primer sets, mutY was not found in clade I symbionts but was found in clade II symbionts. The G+C content of 16S and 23S rRNA genes in symbionts lacking mutY was significantly lower than in those with mutY.ConclusionsThe extant Calyptogena clam symbionts in clade II were shown to have recA and mutY or their remnants, while those in clade I did not. The present results indicate that the extant symbionts are losing these genes in RGE, and that the loss of mutY contributed to the GC bias of the genomes during their evolution.

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Physical proximity may promote lateral acquisition of bacterial symbionts in vesicomyid clams.

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