Endosymbiotic sulphate-reducing and sulphide-oxidizing bacteria in an oligochaete worm

Nicole Dubilier (), Caroline Mülders, Tim Ferdelman, Dirk de Beer, Annelie Pernthaler, Michael Klein, Michael Wagner, Christer Erséus, Frank Thiermann, Jens Krieger, Olav Giere and Rudolf Amann
Additional contact information
Nicole Dubilier: Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology
Caroline Mülders: Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology
Tim Ferdelman: Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology
Dirk de Beer: Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology
Annelie Pernthaler: Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology
Michael Klein: Technical University of Munich
Michael Wagner: Technical University of Munich
Christer Erséus: Swedish Museum of Natural History
Frank Thiermann: Zoological Institute and Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg
Jens Krieger: Zoological Institute and Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg
Olav Giere: Zoological Institute and Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg
Rudolf Amann: Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology

Nature, 2001, vol. 411, issue 6835, 298-302

Abstract: Abstract Stable associations of more than one species of symbiont within a single host cell or tissue are assumed to be rare in metazoans because competition for space and resources between symbionts can be detrimental to the host1. In animals with multiple endosymbionts, such as mussels from deep-sea hydrothermal vents2 and reef-building corals3, the costs of competition between the symbionts are outweighed by the ecological and physiological flexibility gained by the hosts. A further option for the coexistence of multiple symbionts within a host is if these benefit directly from one another, but such symbioses have not been previously described. Here we show that in the gutless marine oligochaete Olavius algarvensis, endosymbiotic sulphate-reducing bacteria produce sulphide that can serve as an energy source for sulphide-oxidizing symbionts of the host. Thus, these symbionts do not compete for resources but rather share a mutalistic relationship with each other in an endosymbiotic sulphur cycle, in addition to their symbiotic relationship with the oligochaete host.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35077067 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:411:y:2001:i:6835:d:10.1038_35077067

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35077067

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().