Kerwin Allison H, Nyholm Spencer V
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, CT 06269, USA.
Environ Microbiol. 2017 Apr;19(4):1463-1475. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.13665. Epub 2017 Mar 8.
Female Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, have an accessory nidamental gland (ANG) housing a bacterial consortium that is hypothesized to be environmentally transmitted and to function in the protection of eggs from fouling and infection. The composition, stability, and variability of the ANG and egg jelly coat (JC) communities were characterized and compared to the bacterial community composition of the surrounding environment using Illumina sequencing and transmission electron microscopy. The ANG bacterial community was conserved throughout hosts collected from the wild and was not affected by maintaining animals in the laboratory. The core symbiotic community was composed of Alphaproteobacteria and Opitutae (a class of Verrucomicrobia). Operational taxonomic units representing 94.5% of the average ANG abundance were found in either the seawater or sediment, which is consistent with the hypothesis of environmental transmission between generations. The bacterial composition of the JC was stable during development and mirrored that of the ANG. Bacterial communities from individual egg clutches also grouped with the ANG of the female that produced them. Collectively, these data suggest a conserved role of the ANG/JC community in host reproduction. Future directions will focus on determining the function of this symbiotic community, and how it may change during ANG development.
雌性夏威夷短尾乌贼（Euprymna scolopes）有一个副缠卵腺（ANG），其中容纳着一个细菌群落，据推测该群落是通过环境传播的，并且在保护卵免受污染和感染方面发挥作用。使用Illumina测序和透射电子显微镜对ANG和卵胶膜（JC）群落的组成、稳定性和变异性进行了表征，并与周围环境的细菌群落组成进行了比较。ANG细菌群落在从野外采集的整个宿主中是保守的，并且不受在实验室中饲养动物的影响。核心共生群落由α-变形菌纲和疣微菌纲（疣微菌门的一个纲）组成。在海水或沉积物中发现了占ANG平均丰度94.5%的操作分类单元，这与代际间环境传播的假设一致。JC的细菌组成在发育过程中是稳定的，并且反映了ANG的细菌组成。来自单个卵块的细菌群落也与产生它们的雌性的ANG归为一类。总体而言，这些数据表明ANG/JC群落在宿主繁殖中具有保守作用。未来的研究方向将集中在确定这个共生群落的功能，以及它在ANG发育过程中可能如何变化。
