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Structured multiple endosymbiosis of bacteria and archaea in a ciliate from marine sulfidic sediments: a survival mechanism in low oxygen, sulfidic sediments?
Frontiers in Microbiology (2011)
  • Virginia P. Edgcomb
  • Edward R. Leadbetter
  • William A. Bourland
  • David Beaudoin
  • Joan M. Bernhard
Abstract

Marine micro-oxic to sulfidic environments are sites of intensive biogeochemical cycling and elemental sequestration, where prokaryotes are major driving forces mediating carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and metal cycles, important from both biogeochemical and evolutionary perspectives. Associations between single-celled eukaryotes and bacteria and/or archaea are common in such habitats. Here we describe a ciliate common in the micro-oxic to anoxic, typically sulfidic, sediments of Santa Barbara Basin (CA, USA). The ciliate is 95% similar to Parduzcia orbis (18S rRNA). Transmission electron micrographs reveal clusters of at least three different endobiont types organized within membrane-bound sub-cellular regions. Catalyzed reporter deposition–fluorescent in situ hybridization and 16S rRNA clone libraries confirm the symbionts include up to two sulfate reducers (Desulfobulbaceae, Desulfobacteraceae), a methanogen (Methanobacteriales), and possibly a Bacteroidete (Cytophaga) and a Type I methanotroph, suggesting synergistic metabolisms in this environment. This case study is discussed in terms of implications to biogeochemistry, and benthic ecology.

Publication Date
March, 2011
Publisher Statement
This article was submitted to Frontiers in Microbial Physiology and Metabolism, a specialty of Frontiers in Microbiology. Copyright © 2011 Edgcomb, Leadbetter, Bourland, Beaudoin and Bernhard. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and Frontiers Media SA, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, pro- vided the original authors and source are credited.
Citation Information
Virginia P. Edgcomb, Edward R. Leadbetter, William A. Bourland, David Beaudoin, et al.. "Structured multiple endosymbiosis of bacteria and archaea in a ciliate from marine sulfidic sediments: a survival mechanism in low oxygen, sulfidic sediments?" Frontiers in Microbiology Vol. 2 Iss. Article 55 (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/william_bourland/12/