Biol. Bull. Sign up for etocs!
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Krueger, D. M.
Right arrow Articles by Cavanaugh, C. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Krueger, D. M.
Right arrow Articles by Cavanaugh, C. M.

The Biological Bulletin, Vol 190, Issue 2 195-202, Copyright © 1996 by Marine Biological Laboratory

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

Vertical Transmission of Chemoautotrophic Symbionts in the Bivalve Solemya velum (Bivalvia: Protobranchia)

D. M. Krueger, R. G. Gustafson and C. M. Cavanaugh
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Adults of the bivalve species Solemya velum live in symbiosis with chemoautotrophic bacteria in specialized gill bacteriocytes. The bacteria play an essential nutritional role in the mature association, fixing CO2 via the Calvin cycle with energy obtained through the oxidation of reduced sulfur compounds. To understand how the continuity of this partnership is maintained between host generations, we investigated the mode of symbiont transfer in S. velum. A diagnostic assay using the polymerase chain reaction and primers specific for the S. velum symbiont ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RubisCO) gene consistently detected bacterial sequence in female gonad tissue, suggesting the presence of symbiont cells in host ovaries and a vertical mode of symbiont transmission from mother to offspring. Furthermore, intracellular bacteria were present in the developing gills of juveniles that had not yet hatched from the gelatinous capsule in which larval development occurs (11 days after fertilization). By 64 days postfertilization, the typical adult gill ultrastructure of alternating bacteriocytes and symbiont-free intercalary cells was apparent. Knowledge about the mode of symbiont transfer in S. velum allows further study into the dynamics of host-symbiont interactions in chemoautotrophic associations.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Appl. Environ. Microbiol.Home page
K. H. Sharp, B. Eam, D. J. Faulkner, and M. G. Haygood
Vertical Transmission of Diverse Microbes in the Tropical Sponge Corticium sp.
Appl. Envir. Microbiol., January 1, 2007; 73(2): 622 - 629.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Appl. Environ. Microbiol.Home page
O. Gros, M. Liberge, A. Heddi, C. Khatchadourian, and H. Felbeck
Detection of the Free-Living Forms of Sulfide-Oxidizing Gill Endosymbionts in the Lucinid Habitat (Thalassia testudinum Environment)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol., October 1, 2003; 69(10): 6264 - 6267.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1996 by the Marine Biological Laboratory.