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Symbiotic chemoautotrophic bacteria in marine invertebrates from sulphide-rich habitats

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Abstract

The primary base of the food chain of the dense animal populations found clustered around deep-sea hydrothermal vents1,2 appears to be chemoautotrophic bacteria, whose energy source is geothermally reduced hydrogen sulphide emitted from the vents3,4. Recently, a symbiotic association has been postulated5 between chemoautotrophic sulphur-oxidizing bacteria and the vent tubeworm, Riftia pachyptila Jones (phylum Pogonophora) on the basis of histological5 and enzymatic6 evidence. Hydrothermal vents thus appear to be a spectacular example of the role of reduced inorganic elements in animal nutrition. Marine muds and salt marsh sediments also produce a continuous supply of reduced sulphur compounds7,8, so the possibility arises that they support similar symbiotic associations5,9. I now present microscopic, enzymatic, and physiological evidence for the occurrence of intracellular sulphur-oxidizing chemoautotrophic bacteria in a bivalve, Solemya velum Say (phylum Mollusca), found in reducing muds of eelgrass beds. Bacterial symbionts were also observed in other animals from a variety of sulphide-rich habitats. It thus seems that symbiotic relationships with bacteria are widespread among sulphide-habitat marine invertebrates, and may have a significant role in their nutrition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA

    Colleen M. Cavanaugh

  2. Marine Biological Laboratory, The Ecosystems Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 02543, USA

    Colleen M. Cavanaugh

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  1. Colleen M. Cavanaugh
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Cavanaugh, C. Symbiotic chemoautotrophic bacteria in marine invertebrates from sulphide-rich habitats. Nature 302, 58–61 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/302058a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/302058a0

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