Biology Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2019
Publication Title
eLife
ISSN
2050-084X
Volume
2019
Issue/No.
8
First Page
e47606
Abstract
Deep-sea anglerfishes are relatively abundant and diverse, but their luminescent bacterial symbionts remain enigmatic. The genomes of two symbiont species have qualities common to vertically transmitted, host-dependent bacteria. However, a number of traits suggest that these symbionts may be environmentally acquired. To determine how anglerfish symbionts are transmitted, we analyzed bacteria-host codivergence across six diverse anglerfish genera. Most of the anglerfish species surveyed shared a common species of symbiont. Only one other symbiont species was found, which had a specific relationship with one anglerfish species, Cryptopsaras couesii. Host and symbiont phylogenies lacked congruence, and there was no statistical support for codivergence broadly. We also recovered symbiont-specific gene sequences from water collected near hosts, suggesting environmental persistence of symbionts. Based on these results we conclude that diverse anglerfishes share symbionts that are acquired from the environment, and that these bacteria have undergone extreme genome reduction although they are not vertically transmitted.
Additional Comments
All data are publicly available through NCBI and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) at https://data.gulfresearchinitiative.org (doi: 10.7266/N7P55KWX, 10.7266/N7VX0DK2, 10.7266.N7R49NTN, 10.7266.N70P0X3T, 10.7266/N7XP7385, and 10.7266/N7902234) .
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
NSUWorks Citation
Baker, Lydia; Lindsay L. Freed; Cole Easson; Jose Lopez; Dante Fenolio; Tracey Sutton; Spencer Nyholm; and Tory Hendry. 2019. "Diverse deep-sea anglerfishes share a genetically reduced luminous symbiont that is acquired from the environment." eLife 2019, (8): e47606. doi:10.7554/eLife.47606.001.
ORCID ID
0000-0002-1637-4125
DOI
10.7554/eLife.47606.001
Comments
© 2019, Baker et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.