Olavius algarvensis

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Olavius algarvensis
Olavius algarvensis from Elba, Italy.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Annelida
Clade: Pleistoannelida
Clade: Sedentaria
Class: Clitellata
Order: Tubificida
Family: Naididae
Genus: Olavius
Species:
O. algarvensis
Binomial name
Olavius algarvensis
Giere, Erséus & Stuhlmacher, 1998  [1] [2]

Olavius algarvensis is a species of gutless oligochaete worm in the family Tubificidae which depends on symbiotic bacteria for its nutrition.

Contents

Habitats and research

Olavius algarvensis lives in coastal sediments in the Mediterranean. It was first described from the Algarve Coast of Portugal, [2] but has also been found elsewhere, e.g. off the Italian island Elba, where it co-occurs with another species, O. ilvae. [3] [4] It was the first species of Olavius described from the East Atlantic coast; previously the genus was only known from the Caribbean. [2]

Description

Olavius algarvensis is 12–25 mm long, about 0.25 mm wide, and has between 100 and 150 segments. Like all other species in the genus Olavius, this species has no digestive tract. Instead, the body cavity contains the ventral nerve cord (inside a muscular sheath) and two blood vessels which are surrounded by a "fluffy" layer of chloragocytic cells. They are distinguished from other species of Olavius by having round, flap-like external male papillae that cover the two ventral invaginations of the body wall which contain the male pores (in segment XI), and having small atria that are perpendicular rather than parallel to the body axis. [2] The symbiotic bacteria are located between the cuticle and epidermis, and also in vacuoles within epidermal cells, which often show signs of lysis. The bacteria are absent from the anterior part of the worm and the pygidium, but are found from segment VII or VIII onwards. [3] While cholesterol partially comprises the sterols in their cell membranes, sitosterol, generally a plant sterol, predominates. [5]

Symbiosis with bacteria

Oligochaete worms without any mouth, gut, or nephridial excretory system were first discovered in the 1970s-1980s near Bermuda. [6] They were later found to contain symbiotic chemosynthetic bacteria which serve as their primary food source. O. algarvensis is the species where this symbiosis has been studied in the most detail.

There are five different species of bacterial symbionts in O. algarvensis, which are located under the cuticle of the worm: two sulfide-oxidizing Gammaproteobacteria, two sulfate-reducing Deltaproteobacteria, and one spirochaete. The sulfide-oxidizers gain energy from oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, and fix carbon dioxide via the Calvin cycle. The sulfate-reducers are anaerobes that can reduce sulfate into sulfide, which is consumed by the sulfide-oxidizers. The metabolism of the spirochaete is unknown. [7] Other species of Olavius are also known to have similar symbioses with both sulfide-oxidizing and sulfate-reducing bacteria in the same worm. [4] [8]

The primary sulfur-oxidizing symbiont, known as "Gamma1", is closely related to the primary symbionts of other species of gutless oligochaetes in the Phallodrilinae, and also to the symbionts of nematodes in the subfamily Stilbonematinae. [9]

In addition to hydrogen sulfide, the symbiotic bacteria also allow the worm to use hydrogen and carbon monoxide as energy sources, and to metabolise organic compounds like malate and acetate. These abilities were first discovered by sequencing the genomes and proteomes of the bacteria. [10] [11]

The symbiotic bacteria which live with O. algarvensis have other unique properties. One of the Deltaproteobacteria symbionts, called "Delta-1", is able to produce numerous seleno- and pyrroproteins, which contain the amino acids selenocysteine and pyrrolysine that are sometimes called the 21st and 22nd proteinogenic amino acids. This bacterium has the largest known proteome that has seleno- and pyrroproteins. [12] The symbionts also express the most transposases of any known bacteria. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trophosome</span> Organ containing endosymbionts

A trophosome is a highly vascularised organ found in some animals that houses symbiotic bacteria that provide food for their host. Trophosomes are contained by the coelom of tube worms and in the body of symbiotic flatworms of the genus Paracatenula.

Inanidrilus is a genus of marine annelid worms, first described by Christer Erséus in 1979. They are gutless and live in the interstitial of tropical and subtropical seas.

<i>Paracatenula</i> Genus of flatworms

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Olavius finitimus is a species of oligochaete worm, first found in Belize, on the Caribbean side of Central America.

Olavius vacuus is a species of oligochaete worm, first found in Belize, on the Caribbean side of Central America.

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Bathydrilus egenus is a species of clitellate oligochaete worm, first found in Belize, on the Caribbean side of Central America.

Thalassodrilides bruneti is a species of oligochaete worm, first found in Belize, on the Caribbean side of Central America.

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<i>Kentrophoros</i> Genus of single-celled organisms

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Stilbonematinae is a subfamily of the nematode worm family Desmodoridae that is notable for its symbiosis with sulfur-oxidizing bacteria.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine microbiome</span>

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<i>Olavius</i> Genus of annelid

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References

  1. Tarmo Timm & Christer Erséus (2011). "Olavius algarvensis Giere, Erséus & Stuhlmacher, 1998". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Giere, Olav; Erséus, Christer; Stuhlmacher, Frank (1998). "A new species of Olavius (Tubificidae) from the Algarve Coast in Portugal, the first East Atlantic gutless oligochaete with symbiotic bacteria". Zoologischer Anzeiger. 237: 209–214.
  3. 1 2 Giere, Olav; Erséus, Christer (2002). "Taxonomy and new bacterial symbioses of gutless marine Tubificidae (Annelida, Oligochaeta) from the island of Elba (Italy)". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. 2 (4): 289–297. doi: 10.1078/1439-6092-00044 .
  4. 1 2 Ruehland, Caroline; Blazejak, Anna; Lott, Christian; Loy, Alexander; Erséus, Christer; Dubilier, Nicole (December 2008). "Multiple bacterial symbionts in two species of co-occurring gutless oligochaete worms from Mediterranean sea grass sediments". Environmental Microbiology. 10 (12): 3404–3416. doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2008.01728.x. ISSN   1462-2920. PMID   18764872.
  5. Michellod, Dolma; Bien, Tanja; Birgel, Daniel; Violette, Marlene; Kleiner, Manuel; Fearn, Sarah; Zeidler, Caroline; Gruber-Vodicka, Harald R.; Dubilier, Nicole; Liebeke, Manuel (5 May 2023). "De novo phytosterol synthesis in animals". Science. 380 (6644): 520–526. doi:10.1126/science.add7830. ISSN   0036-8075. PMC   11139496 .
  6. Giere, O. 1979. Studies on marine Oligochaeta from Bermuda, with emphasis on new Phallodrilus species (Tubificidae). Cah. Biol. Mar. 20:301-314.
  7. Dubilier, N.; Mülders, C.; Ferdelman, T.; de Beer, D.; Pernthaler, A.; Klein, M.; Wagner, M.; Erséus, C.; Thiermann, F. (2001-05-17). "Endosymbiotic sulphate-reducing and sulphide-oxidizing bacteria in an oligochaete worm". Nature. 411 (6835): 298–302. Bibcode:2001Natur.411..298D. doi:10.1038/35077067. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   11357130. S2CID   4420931.
  8. Blazejak, A; Erséus, C; Amann, R; Dubilier, N. (Mar 2005). "Coexistence of bacterial sulfide oxidisers, sulfate reducers, and spirochetes in a gutless worm (Oligochaeta) from the Peru margin". Appl Environ Microbiol. 71 (3): 1553–61. Bibcode:2005ApEnM..71.1553B. doi:10.1128/AEM.71.3.1553-1561.2005. PMC   1065125 . PMID   15746360.
  9. Zimmermann, Judith; Wentrup, Cecilia; Sadowski, Miriam; Blazejak, Anna; Gruber-Vodicka, Harald R.; Kleiner, Manuel; Ott, Jörg A.; Cronholm, Bodil; De Wit, Pierre (July 2016). "Closely coupled evolutionary history of ecto- and endosymbionts from two distantly related animal phyla". Molecular Ecology. 25 (13): 3203–3223. doi: 10.1111/mec.13554 . ISSN   1365-294X. PMID   26826340.
  10. Kleiner, Manuel; Wentrup, Cecilia; Lott, Christian; Teeling, Hanno; Wetzel, Silke; Young, Jacque; Chang, Yun-Juan; Shah, Manesh; VerBerkmoes, Nathan C. (2012-05-08). "Metaproteomics of a gutless marine worm and its symbiotic microbial community reveal unusual pathways for carbon and energy use". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 109 (19): E1173–E1182. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1121198109 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   3358896 . PMID   22517752.
  11. Woyke, Tanja; Teeling, Hanno; Ivanova, Natalia N.; Huntemann, Marcel; Richter, Michael; Gloeckner, Frank Oliver; Boffelli, Dario; Anderson, Iain J.; Barry, Kerrie W. (2006-10-26). "Symbiosis insights through metagenomic analysis of a microbial consortium" (PDF). Nature. 443 (7114): 950–955. Bibcode:2006Natur.443..950W. doi:10.1038/nature05192. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   16980956. S2CID   140106758.
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  13. Kleiner, Manuel; Young, Jacque C.; Shah, Manesh; VerBerkmoes, Nathan C.; Dubilier, Nicole (2013-06-18). "Metaproteomics reveals abundant transposase expression in mutualistic endosymbionts". mBio. 4 (3): e00223–00213. doi:10.1128/mBio.00223-13. ISSN   2150-7511. PMC   3684830 . PMID   23781067.