Divergent marine anaerobic ciliates harbor closely related Methanocorpusculum endosymbionts.

ABSTRACT: Ciliates are a diverse group of protists known for their ability to establish various partnerships and thrive in a wide variety of oxygen-depleted environments. Most anaerobic ciliates harbor methanogens, one of the few known archaea living intracellularly. These methanogens increase the metabolic efficiency of host fermentation via syntrophic use of host end-product in methanogenesis. Despite the ubiquity of these symbioses in anoxic habitats, patterns of symbiont specificity and fidelity are not well known. We surveyed two unrelated, commonly found groups of anaerobic ciliates, the Plagiopylea and Metopida, isolated from anoxic marine sediments. We sequenced host 18S rRNA and symbiont 16S rRNA marker genes as well as the symbiont internal transcribed spacer region from our cultured cilia

SUBMITTER: Schrecengost A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11253715 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature