Project description:Colonization of deep-sea hydrothermal vents by invertebrates was made efficient through their adaptation to a symbiotic lifestyle with chemosynthetic bacteria, the primary producers of these ecosystems. Anatomical adaptations such as the establishment of specialized cells or organs have been evidenced in numerous deep-sea invertebrates. However, very few studies detailed global inter-dependencies between host and symbionts in these ecosystems. In this study, we proposed to describe, using a proteo-transcriptomic approach, the effects of symbionts on the deep-sea mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus’ molecular biology. We induced an in situ depletion of symbionts and compared the proteo-transcriptome of the gills of mussels in three conditions: symbiotic mussels (natural population), symbiont-depleted mussels and aposymbiotic mussels
Project description:The project was designed to explore biological rhythms in the hydrothermal vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus. The experiment provides the first high-resolution temporal transcriptomes of an hydrothermal species, both in situ and in the laboratory. For each condition, 5 mussels were sampled every 2h 4min for 24h 48min.
Project description:Bathymodiolus azoricus is a deep-sea mussel found in the hydrothermal vent fields of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It lives in symbiosis with sulfur- and methane-oxidizing γ-proteobacteria within its gills. In our study, we aimed to understand the metabolic and physiological interconnections between the symbiotic partners. For this purpose, symbionts and host were physically separated using density gradient centrifugation. This procedure yielded a symbiont-enriched gradient pellet fraction and a supernatant fraction enriched in host components. The cytosolic and membrane-associated proteome of both these fractions along with whole gill and foot tissue of the mussel were then investigated through 1D-PAGE LC-MS/MS. Proteins were quantified based on their spectral counts using the NSAF method. For efficient identification, sequences from evolutionarily related endosymbiotic and free-living bacteria and from bivalve host relatives were compiled into a comprehensive protein database. A total of 3178 host and symbiont proteins were identified from all samples.
Project description:High-throughput sequencing and analysis of the gill tissue transcriptome from the deep-sea hydrothermal vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus
