Environmental Breviatea harbor mutualistic Arcobacter epibionts

Breviatea form a lineage of free living, unicellular protists, distantly related to animals and fungi1–3. This lineage emerged almost one billion years ago, when the oceanic oxygen content was low, and extant Breviatea have evolved or retained an anaerobic lifestyle4. Here we report the cultivation of Lenisia limosa, gen. et sp. nov., a newly discovered breviate colonized by relatives of animal-associated Arcobacter. Physiological experiments showed that the association of L. limosa with Arcobacter was driven by the transfer of hydrogen and was mutualistic, providing benefits to both partners. With whole genome sequencing and differential proteomics we show that an experimentally observed fitness gain of L. limosa could be explained by the activity of a so far unknown type of NAD(P)H accepting hydrogenase, which was expressed in the presence, but not in the absence of Arcobacter. Differential proteomics further revealed that the presence of Lenisia stimulated expression of known “virulence” factors by Arcobacter. These proteins typically enable colonization of animal cells during infection5, but may in the present case act for mutual benefit. Finally, re-investigation of two currently available transcriptomic datasets of other Breviatea4 revealed the presence and activity of related hydrogen-consuming Arcobacter, indicating that mutualistic interaction between these two groups of microbes might be pervasive. Our results support the notion that molecular mechanisms involved in virulence can also support mutualism6 as shown here for Arcobacter and Breviatea.