The hydrothermal vent crab Shinkaia crosnieri is considered to obtain nutrition from the epibiotic bacteria found on the setae, but previous studies have not shown how nutrients can be transferred from the epibionts to the host. In this study, microscopic observations of S. crosnieri intestinal components detected autofluorescent setae fragments and pigmentation derived from the digestion of epibionts in a dye-stained epibiont tracer experiment. An in vitro digestion experiment with epibiotic populations using an intestinal extract demonstrated the degradation of epibiotic cells by digestive enzymes. A phylogenetic analysis showed that many of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences obtained from the intestine were closely related to the sequences of the epibionts, thus they were probably derived from the epibionts. A stable isotope tracer experiment also indicated that 13 C assimilated by the epibionts provided a carbon (nutrition) source for the host. Both activity measurements and isotope studies showed that chemosynthetic metabolism by the gut microbial components were inactive. Together with the feeding behaviour of living S. crosnieri, these results indicate that S. crosnieri ingests the epibionts using maxillipeds and assimilates them via its digestive organs as a nutrient source. The results of this study elucidate the mechanism of nutritional transfer in ectosymbiosis between chemosynthetic bacteria and deep-sea invertebrates.

The oscillation of chemoattractant cyclic AMP (cAMP) in Dictyostelium discoideum is a collective phenomenon that occurs when the basal level of extracellular cAMP exceeds a threshold and invokes cooperative mutual excitation of cAMP synthesis and secretion. For pulses to be relayed from cell to cell repetitively, secreted cAMP must be cleared and brought down to the subthreshold level. One of the main determinants of the oscillatory behavior is thus how much extracellular cAMP is degraded by extracellular phosphodiesterase (PDE). To date, the exact nature of PDE gene regulation remains elusive. Here, we performed live imaging analysis of mRNA transcripts for pdsA--the gene encoding extracellular PDE. Our analysis revealed that pdsA is upregulated during the rising phase of cAMP oscillations. Furthermore, by analyzing isolated cells, we show that expression of pdsA is strictly dependent on the presence of extracellular cAMP. pdsA is induced only at ∼1 nM extracellular cAMP, which is almost identical to the threshold concentration for the cAMP relay response. The observed precise regulation of PDE expression together with degradation of extracellular cAMP by PDE form a dual positive and negative feedback circuit, and model analysis shows that this sets the cAMP level near the threshold concentration for the cAMP relay response for a wide range of adenylyl cyclase activity. The overlap of the thresholds could allow oscillations of chemoattractant cAMP to self-organize at various starving conditions, making its development robust to fluctuations in its environment.

Thiomicrospira hydrogeniphila sp. nov., an aerobic, hydrogen-and sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotroph isolated from a seawater tank containing a block of beef tallow A moderately psychrophilic, aerobic, hydrogen-and sulfur-oxidizing bacterium, designated strain MAS2 T , was isolated from a tank containing coastal seawater from Tokyo Bay and a block of beef tallow added as organic material. Growth occurred under aerobic chemolithoautotrophic conditions in the presence of molecular hydrogen, thiosulfate, tetrathionate, elemental sulfur or sulfide as the sole energy source and bicarbonate as a carbon source. The isolate represented a Gram-staining-negative rod with a single polar flagellum and grew in artificial seawater medium with thiosulfate at 2-40 C (optimum 30 C). The isolate grew in media with thiosulfate at Na + concentrations between 30 and 1380 mM (optimum 270 mM). MAS2 T possessed C 16 : 0 , C 16 : 1 and C 18 : 1 as the major fatty acids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 39.6 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity analysis showed that the isolate represented a member of the genus Thiomicrospira within the class Gammaproteobacteria and was most closely related to Thiomicrospira frisia JB-A2 T . On the basis of phenotypic and molecular properties, the isolate represents a novel species of the genus Thiomicrospira, for which the name Thiomicrospira hydrogeniphila sp. nov. is proposed (type strain, MAS2 T =JCM 30760 T =DSM 100274 T ).

The hydrothermal vent squat lobster Shinkaia crosnieri Baba & Williams harbors an epibiotic bacterial community, which is numerically and functionally dominated by methanotrophs affiliated with Methylococcaceae and thioautotrophs affiliated with Sulfurovum and Thiotrichaceae. In the present study, shifts in the phylogenetic composition and metabolic function of the epibiont community were investigated using S. crosnieri individuals, which were reared for one year in a tank fed with methane as the energy and carbon source. The results obtained indicated that indigenous predominant thioautotrophic populations, such as Sulfurovum and Thiotrichaceae members, became absent, possibly due to the lack of an energy source, and epibiotic communities were dominated by indigenous Methylococcaceae and betaproteobacterial methylotrophic members that adapted to the conditions present during rearing for 12 months with a supply of methane. Furthermore, the overall phylogenetic composition of the epibiotic community markedly changed from a composition dominated by chemolithotrophs to one enriched with cross-feeding heterotrophs in addition to methanotrophs and methylotrophs. Thus, the composition and function of the S. crosnieri epibiotic bacterial community were strongly affected by the balance between the energy and carbon sources supplied for chemosynthetic production as well as that between the production and consumption of organic compounds.