Localized production of defence chemicals by intracellular symbionts of Haliclona sponges.

ABSTRACT: Marine sponges often house small-molecule-producing symbionts extracellularly in their mesohyl, providing the host with a means of chemical defence against predation and microbial infection. Here, we report an intriguing case of chemically mediated symbiosis between the renieramycin-containing sponge Haliclona sp. and its herein discovered renieramycin-producing symbiont Candidatus Endohaliclona renieramycinifaciens. Remarkably, Ca. E. renieramycinifaciens has undergone extreme genome reduction where it has lost almost all necessary elements for free living while maintaining a complex, multi-copy plasmid-encoded biosynthetic gene cluster for renieramycin biosynthesis. In return, the sponge houses Ca. E. renieramycinifaciens in previously uncharacterized cellular reservoirs (chemobacteriocy

SUBMITTER: Tianero MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8647704 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature