Abstract
The two closely related deep-sea tubeworms Riftia pachyptila and Tevnia jerichonana both rely exclusively on a single species of sulfide-oxidizing endosymbiotic bacteria for their nutrition. They do, however, thrive in markedly different geochemical conditions. A detailed proteogenomic comparison of the endosymbionts coupled with an in situ characterization of the geochemical environment was performed to investigate their roles and expression profiles in the two respective hosts. The metagenomes indicated that the endosymbionts are genotypically highly homogeneous. Gene sequences coding for enzymes of selected key metabolic functions were found to be 99.9% identical. On the proteomic level, the symbionts showed very consistent metabolic profiles, despite distinctly different geochemical conditions at the plume level of the respective hosts. Only a few minor variations were observed in the expression of symbiont enzymes involved in sulfur metabolism, carbon fixation and in the response to oxidative stress. Although these changes correspond to the prevailing environmental situation experienced by each host, our data strongly suggest that the two tubeworm species are able to effectively attenuate differences in habitat conditions, and thus to provide their symbionts with similar micro-environments.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the captains, crews and pilots of R/V Atlantis and DSV Alvin for their outstanding help in obtaining the samples. The cruises were funded through Grant OCE-0452333 of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to SMS. Cruise participation of NLB was funded by Ifremer. Development of chemical sensors was supported by Ifremer and CNRS. This work was supported by Grant SCHW 595/3-3 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to TS and by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; reference 03F0480A/B). SMS was supported through NSF and a senior fellowship awarded by the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald (Germany).
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Gardebrecht, A., Markert, S., Sievert, S. et al. Physiological homogeneity among the endosymbionts of Riftia pachyptila and Tevnia jerichonana revealed by proteogenomics. ISME J 6, 766–776 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2011.137
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2011.137
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