Metagenome analysis of an extreme microbial symbiosis reveals eurythermal adaptation and metabolic flexibility.

ABSTRACT: Hydrothermal vent ecosystems support diverse life forms, many of which rely on symbiotic associations to perform functions integral to survival in these extreme physicochemical environments. Epsilonproteobacteria, found free-living and in intimate associations with vent invertebrates, are the predominant vent-associated microorganisms. The vent-associated polychaete worm, Alvinella pompejana, is host to a visibly dense fleece of episymbionts on its dorsal surface. The episymbionts are a multispecies consortium of Epsilonproteobacteria present as a biofilm. We unraveled details of these enigmatic, uncultivated episymbionts using environmental genome sequencing. They harbor wide-ranging adaptive traits that include high levels of strain variability analogous to Epsilonproteobacteria pathogen

SUBMITTER: Grzymski JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2579889 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature