A Tale of Transmission: Aeromonas veronii Activity within Leech-Exuded Mucus.

ABSTRACT: Transmission, critical to the establishment and persistence of host-associated microbiotas, also exposes symbionts to new environmental conditions. With horizontal transmission, these different conditions represent major lifestyle shifts. Yet genome-wide analyses of how microbes adjust their transcriptomes toward these dramatic shifts remain understudied. Here, we provide a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the global transcriptional profiles of a symbiont as it shifts between lifestyles during transmission. The gammaproteobacterium Aeromonas veronii is transmitted from the gut of the medicinal leech to other hosts via host mucosal castings, yet A. veronii can also transition from mucosal habitancy to a free-living lifestyle. These three lifestyles are characterized by distinct phy

SUBMITTER: Ott BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4836430 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature