Bacterial symbiont transmission in the wood-boring shipworm Bankia setacea (Bivalvia: Teredinidae).

ABSTRACT: The Teredinidae (shipworms) are a morphologically diverse group of marine wood-boring bivalves that are responsible each year for millions of dollars of damage to wooden structures in estuarine and marine habitats worldwide. They exist in a symbiosis with cellulolytic nitrogen-fixing bacteria that provide the host with the necessary enzymes for survival on a diet of wood cellulose. These symbiotic bacteria reside in distinct structures lining the interlamellar junctions of the gill. This study investigated the mode by which these nutritionally essential bacterial symbionts are acquired in the teredinid Bankia setacea. Through 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequencing, the symbiont residing within the B. setacea gill was phylogenetically characterized and shown to be distinct from previously desc

SUBMITTER: Sipe AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC92042 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature