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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2000, p. 651-658, Vol. 66, No. 2
Graduate College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware,
Lewes, Delaware 199581; Florida Marine
Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Florida
337012; Division of Biological Sciences,
The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana
59812-10023; Molecular Dynamics,
Sunnyvale, California 94086-45204; and
Center for Theoretical and Applied Genetics, Cook College,
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
08903-02315
Received 29 July 1999/Accepted 30 November 1999
Vestimentiferan tubeworms thriving in sulfidic deep-sea
hydrothermal vents and cold seeps are constrained by their nutritional reliance on chemoautotrophic endosymbionts. In a recent phylogenetic study using 16S ribosomal DNA, we found that endosymbionts from vent
and seep habitats form two distinct clades with little variation within
each clade. In the present study, we used two different approaches to
assess the genetic variation among biogeographically distinct
vestimentiferan symbionts. DNA sequences were obtained for the
noncoding, internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the rRNA
operons of symbionts associated with six different genera of
vestimentiferan tubeworms. ITS sequences from endosymbionts of host
genera collected from different habitats and widely distributed vent
sites were surprisingly conserved. Because the ITS region was not
sufficient for distinguishing endosymbionts from different habitats or
locations, we used a DNA fingerprinting technique, repetitive-extragenic-palindrome PCR (REP-PCR), to reveal differences in the distribution of repetitive sequences in the genomes of the
bacterial endosymbionts. Most of the endosymbionts displayed unique
REP-PCR patterns. A cladogram generated from these fingerprints reflected relationships that may be influenced by a variety of factors,
including host genera, geographic location, and bottom type.
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Genetic Variation among Endosymbionts of Widely
Distributed Vestimentiferan Tubeworms
and
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Graduate College
of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, Cannon Lab, 700 Pilottown Rd., Lewes, DE 19958. Phone: (302) 645-4078. Fax: (302) 645-4007. E-mail: caryc{at}udel.edu.
Present address: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss
Landing, CA 95039-0628.
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