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Title: Transcriptomic and proteomic insights into innate immunity and adaptations to a symbiotic lifestyle in the gutless marine worm Olavius algarvensis

Journal Article · · BMC Genomics
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [1]
  1. Max Planck Inst. for Marine Microbiology, Bremen (Germany). Symbiosis Dept.
  2. Max Planck Inst. for Marine Microbiology, Bremen (Germany). Symbiosis Dept.; Univ. of Calgary, AB (Canada). Energy Bioenergineering and Geomicrobiology
  3. Max Planck Inst. for Marine Microbiology, Bremen (Germany). Symbiosis Dept.; HYDRA Inst. for Marine Sciences, Campo nell' Elba (Italy)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The gutless marine worm Olavius algarvensis has a completely reduced digestive and excretory system, and lives in an obligate nutritional symbiosis with bacterial symbionts. While considerable knowledge has been gained of the symbionts, the host has remained largely unstudied. We generated transcriptomes and proteomes of O. algarvensis to better understand how this annelid worm gains nutrition from its symbionts, how it adapted physiologically to a symbiotic lifestyle, and how its innate immune system recognizes and responds to its symbiotic microbiota. Key adaptations to the symbiosis include (i) the expression of gut-specific digestive enzymes despite the absence of a gut, most likely for the digestion of symbionts in the host's epidermal cells; (ii) a modified hemoglobin that may bind hydrogen sulfide produced by two of the worm’s symbionts; and (iii) the expression of a very abundant protein for oxygen storage, hemerythrin, that could provide oxygen to the symbionts and the host under anoxic conditions. In addition, we identified a large repertoire of proteins involved in interactions between the worm's innate immune system and its symbiotic microbiota, such as peptidoglycan recognition proteins, lectins, fibrinogen-related proteins, Toll and scavenger receptors, and antimicrobial proteins.We also show how this worm, over the course of evolutionary time, has modified widely-used proteins and changed their expression patterns in adaptation to its symbiotic lifestyle and describe expressed components of the innate immune system in a marine oligochaete. These results provide further support for the recent realization that animals have evolved within the context of their associations with microbes and that their adaptive responses to symbiotic microbiota have led to biological innovations.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1336573
Journal Information:
BMC Genomics, Vol. 17, Issue 942; ISSN 1471-2164
Publisher:
SpringerCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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A metaproteomics method to determine carbon sources and assimilation pathways of species in microbial communities posted_content January 2018
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