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Symbiosis

Sweet talking your partner

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 13, page 67 (2015)Cite this article

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Long-term stability of symbiotic relationships between animal hosts and their bacterial partners requires the fostering of a mutually beneficial dialogue, but the factors involved are poorly understood. Schwartzman et al. now show that the strategic provision of a single glycan by the Hawaiian bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes to its bioluminescent symbiont Vibrio fischeri contributes to the persistence of their lifelong symbiosis.

To investigate this hypothesis, the authors began by assessing the source of chitin in the light-organ crypts and found that migratory haemocytes were the main source, and that their lysis releases particulate chitin. Compared to aposymbiotic organs, haemocyte numbers increased approximately fourfold in symbiotic organs, and this increase occurred at dusk and declined before dawn, suggesting that haemocyte trafficking to the light organ is symbiosis dependent and occurs only during the nocturnal phase of the diel cycle. Furthermore, haemocytes were found to be the main producers of the E. scolopes chitotriosidase enzyme EsChit1, which also follows a diel pattern of expression that peaks at night in mature light organs and degrades chitin into COS. Consistent with the data on haemocyte migration, an increase in the transcript levels of eschit1 was also symbiosis dependent.

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References

  1. Schwartzman, J. A. et al. The chemistry of negotiation: rhythmic, glycan-driven acidification in a symbiotic conversation. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1418580112 (2014)

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  1. Christina Tobin Kåhrström
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Kåhrström, C. Sweet talking your partner. Nat Rev Microbiol 13, 67 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3424

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