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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2002, p. 6292-6299, Vol. 68, No. 12
0099-2240/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.68.12.6292-6299.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Coexistence of Multiple Proteobacterial Endosymbionts in the Gills of the Wood-Boring Bivalve Lyrodus pedicellatus (Bivalvia: Teredinidae)

Daniel L. Distel,* David J. Beaudoin,{dagger} and Wendy Morrill

Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine

Received 29 May 2002/ Accepted 24 September 2002

Wood-boring bivalves of the family Teredinidae (commonly called shipworms) are known to harbor dense populations of gram-negative bacteria within specialized cells (bacteriocytes) in their gills. These symbionts are thought to provide enzymes, e.g., cellulase and dinitrogenase, which assist the host in utilizing wood as a primary food source. A cellulolytic, dinitrogen-fixing bacterium, Teredinibacter turnerae, has been isolated from the gill tissues of numerous teredinid bivalves and has been proposed to constitute the sole or predominant symbiont of this bivalve family. Here we demonstrate that one teredinid species, Lyrodus pedicellatus, contains at least four distinct bacterial 16S rRNA types within its gill bacteriocytes, one of which is identical to that of T. turnerae. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the three newly detected ribotypes are derived from gamma proteobacteria that are related to but distinct (>6.5% sequence divergence) from T. turnerae. In situ hybridizations with 16S rRNA-directed probes demonstrated that the pattern of occurrence of symbiont ribotypes within bacteriocytes was predictable and specific, with some bacteriocytes containing two symbiont ribotypes. However, only two of the six possible pairwise combinations of the four ribotypes were observed to cooccur within the same host cells. The results presented here are consistent with the existence of a complex multiple symbiosis in this shipworm species.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, University of Maine, 5735 Hitchner Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5735. Phone: (207) 581-2824. Fax: (207) 581-2801. E-mail: distel{at}maine.edu.

{dagger} Present address: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2002, p. 6292-6299, Vol. 68, No. 12
0099-2240/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.68.12.6292-6299.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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