Cutting out the middle clam: lucinid endosymbiotic bacteria are also associated with seagrass roots worldwide
- 14 September 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The ISME Journal
- Vol. 14 (11), 2901-2905
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00771-3
Abstract
Seagrasses and lucinid bivalves inhabit highly reduced sediments with elevated sulphide concentrations. Lucinids house symbiotic bacteria (Ca. Thiodiazotropha) capable of oxidising sediment sulphide, and their presence in sediments has been proposed to promote seagrass growth by decreasing otherwise phytotoxic sulphide levels. However, vast and productive seagrass meadows are present in ecosystems where lucinids do not occur. Hence, we hypothesised that seagrasses themselves host these sulphur-oxidising Ca. Thiodiazotropha that could aid their survival when lucinids are absent. We analysed newly generated and publicly available 16S rRNA gene sequences from seagrass roots and sediments across 14 seagrass species and 10 countries and found that persistent and colonising seagrasses across the world harbour sulphur-oxidising Ca. Thiodiazotropha, regardless of the presence of lucinids. We used fluorescence in situ hybridisation to visually confirm the presence of Ca. Thiodiazotropha on roots of Halophila ovalis, a colonising seagrass species with wide geographical, water depth range, and sedimentary sulphide concentrations. We provide the first evidence that Ca. Thiodiazotropha are commonly present on seagrass roots, providing another mechanism for seagrasses to alleviate sulphide stress globally.Keywords
Funding Information
- Robson and Robertson Postdoctoral Fellowship, awarded by the UWA Oceans Institute.
- Robson and Robertson Postdoctoral Fellowship, awarded by the UWA Oceans Institute.
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon dataNature Methods, 2016
- Epiphyte-cover on seagrass (Zostera marina L.) leaves impedes plant performance and radial O2 loss from the below-ground tissueFrontiers in Marine Science, 2015
- Sulfide Intrusion and Detoxification in the Seagrass Zostera marinaPLOS ONE, 2015
- Sulfide as a soil phytotoxin—a reviewFrontiers in Plant Science, 2013
- The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: improved data processing and web-based toolsNucleic Acids Research, 2012
- A Three-Stage Symbiosis Forms the Foundation of Seagrass EcosystemsScience, 2012
- Lucinidae/sulfur-oxidizing bacteria: ancestral heritage or opportunistic association? Further insights from the Bohol Sea (the Philippines)FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 2010
- A Global Crisis for Seagrass EcosystemsBioScience, 2006
- A Simple, Fast, and Accurate Algorithm to Estimate Large Phylogenies by Maximum LikelihoodSystematic Biology, 2003
- Detection of the Free-Living Forms of Sulfide-Oxidizing Gill Endosymbionts in the Lucinid Habitat ( Thalassia testudinum Environment)Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2003