Resumen de “Candidatus Desulfobulbus rimicarensis,” an Uncultivated Deltaproteobacterial Epibiont from the Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Shrimp Rimicaris exoculata
Lijing Jiang, Xuewen Liu, Chunming Dong, Zhaobin Huang, Marie-Anne Cambon-Bonavita, Karine Alain, Li Gu, Shasha Wang, Zongze Shao
The shrimp Rimicaris exoculata represents the dominant faunal biomass at many deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This organism harbors dense bacterial epibiont communities in its enlarged cephalothoracic chamber that play an important nutritional role. Deltaproteobacteria are ubiquitous in epibiotic communities of R. exoculata, and their functional roles as epibionts are based solely on the presence of functional genes. Here, we describe “Candidatus Desulfobulbus rimicarensis,” an uncultivated deltaproteobacterial epibiont. Compared to campylobacterial and gammaproteobacterial epibionts of R. exoculata, this bacterium possessed unique metabolic pathways, such as the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway, as well as sulfur disproportionation and nitrogen fixation pathways. Furthermore, this epibiont can be distinguished from closely related free-living Desulfobulbus strains by its reduced genetic content and potential loss of functions, suggesting unique adaptations to the shrimp host. This study is a genomic and transcriptomic analysis of a deltaproteobacterial epibiont and largely expands the understanding of its metabolism and adaptation to the R. exoculata host.
