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Autolysis of Chlorella variabilis in Starving Paramecium bursaria Help the Host Cell Survive Against Starvation Stress

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Abstract

The endosymbiosis between Paramecium bursaria and Chlorella spp. is mutualistic. Symbiotic algae localize beneath the host Paramecium cell cortex compete for their attachment sites with preexisting organelle trichocysts. To examine the relationship between P. bursaria trichocysts and their symbiotic algae, algae-bearing or alga-free P. bursaria were starved for several days and the changes in the number of Chlorella sp. and presence or absence of trichocysts were evaluated. We conducted an indirect immunofluorescence microscopy with an anti-trichocyst monoclonal antibody against P. bursaria cells. Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy demonstrated that under starvation and darkness conditions, the immunofluorescence of trichocysts in alga-free P. bursaria decreased much faster than that in the normal algae-bearing P. bursaria. In the latter case, our observations proposed the possibility that the nutrition obtained from symbiotic algal digestion may promote trichocysts synthesis. This algal digestion mechanism may permit host P. bursaria cells to survive for a longer time under starvation condition. To the best of our knowledge, this may be a new benefit that host P. bursaria gain from harboring symbiotic algae.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Masahiro Fujishima (Yamaguchi University, Japan) for giving us the valuable monoclonal antibody against trichocysts. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No. 17 K07513) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and by the Institute for Fermentation (IFO), Osaka, Japan, to Y.K. The authors thank the faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences in Shimane University for financial supports in publishing this report and we would like to thank Editage (www.editage.jp) for English language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Academic Assembly, Shimane University, Matsue, Shimane, Japan

    Yuuki Kodama

  2. Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Life and Environmental Science, Shimane University, Matsue, Shimane, Japan

    Shoya Miyazaki

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  1. Yuuki Kodama
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  2. Shoya Miyazaki
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Yuuki Kodama conceived and designed the experiments. Yuuki Kodama and Shoya Miyazaki performed the experiments. Yuuki Kodama wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yuuki Kodama.

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Kodama, Y., Miyazaki, S. Autolysis of Chlorella variabilis in Starving Paramecium bursaria Help the Host Cell Survive Against Starvation Stress. Curr Microbiol 78, 558–565 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-02304-9

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