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Towards an Understanding of the Killer Trait: Caedibacter endocytobionts in Paramecium

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Book cover Molecular Basis of Symbiosis

Part of the book series: Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology ((PMSB,volume 41))

5 Conclusions

In conclusion of old and new observations, the old killer symbionts of Paramecium may rather be parasites than mutualists. However, this view does not completely do justice to the system. By coding for R bodies and presumably also for toxins, plasmids and phage genomes ensure the persistence of Caedibacter and of the plasmids / phages themselves in paramecia populations. Caedibacter-free populations of Paramecium may develop under unfavorable conditions, e.g., in case of poor nutrients being the reason for low abundance of the ciliates. Only then paramecia without endocytobionts would survive, not being threatened by R body-bearing Caedibacter that are released by host cells. Caedibacter-free paramecia need less food and grow faster. Since, however, in many habitats the conditions are favorable for bacterial feeders like Paramecium, R body-coding plasmids or phages ensure persistence of the killer symbioses, no matter whether Caedibacter is a mutualist or parasite. As always in microbially infected protozoa, host and endocytobiont are forming an entirely new unit facing selection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Biology, TU Kaiserslautern, Erwin-Schroedinger-Str. 13/14, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Jürgen Kusch

  2. Department of Zoology, Biological Institute, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany

    Hans-Dieter Görtz

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  1. Jürgen Kusch
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  2. Hans-Dieter Görtz
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  1. Section of Microbiology, Department of Biology, Maria-Ward-Str. 1a, 80638, Munich, Germany

    Jörg Overmann

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Kusch, J., Görtz, HD. (2005). Towards an Understanding of the Killer Trait: Caedibacter endocytobionts in Paramecium . In: Overmann, J. (eds) Molecular Basis of Symbiosis. Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology, vol 41. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28221-1_4

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