Metatranscriptomics reveal differences in in situ energy and nitrogen metabolism among hydrothermal vent snail symbionts

Despite the ubiquity of chemoautotrophic symbioses at hydrothermal vents, our understanding of the influence of environmental chemistry on symbiont metabolism is limited. Transcriptomic analyses are useful for linking physiological poise to environmental conditions, but recovering samples from the d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The ISME Journal 2013-08, Vol.7 (8), p.1556-1567
Main Authors: Sanders, J G, Beinart, R A, Stewart, F J, Delong, E F, Girguis, P R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Chemoautotrophic Growth
DNA Transposable Elements - genetics
Energy Metabolism
Flagella - genetics
Hydrogen - metabolism
Hydrothermal Vents
Nitrogen - metabolism
Original
Phylogeny
Proteobacteria - genetics
Proteobacteria - metabolism
Proteobacteria - physiology
Snails - microbiology
Symbiosis
Transcriptome
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Summary:Despite the ubiquity of chemoautotrophic symbioses at hydrothermal vents, our understanding of the influence of environmental chemistry on symbiont metabolism is limited. Transcriptomic analyses are useful for linking physiological poise to environmental conditions, but recovering samples from the deep sea is challenging, as the long recovery times can change expression profiles before preservation. Here, we present a novel, in situ RNA sampling and preservation device, which we used to compare the symbiont metatranscriptomes associated with Alviniconcha, a genus of vent snail, in which specific host-symbiont combinations are predictably distributed across a regional geochemical gradient. Metatranscriptomes of these symbionts reveal key differences in energy and nitrogen metabolism relating to both environmental chemistry (that is, the relative expression of genes) and symbiont phylogeny (that is, the specific pathways employed). Unexpectedly, dramatic differences in expression of transposases and flagellar genes suggest that different symbiont types may also have distinct life histories. These data further our understanding of these symbionts' metabolic capabilities and their expression in situ, and suggest an important role for symbionts in mediating their hosts' interaction with regional-scale differences in geochemistry.
ISSN:1751-7362
1751-7370
DOI:10.1038/ismej.2013.45