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A Crispy Diet: Grazers of Achromatium oxaliferum in Lake Stechlin Sediments

Achromatium is the largest freshwater bacterium known to date and easily recognised by conspicuous calcite bodies filling the cell volume. Members of this genus are highly abundant in diverse aquatic sediments and may account for up to 90% of the bacterial biovolume in the oxic-anoxic interfaces. Th...

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Autores principales: Schorn, Sina, Cypionka, Heribert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6132539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29492594
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00248-018-1158-4
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author Schorn, Sina
Cypionka, Heribert
author_facet Schorn, Sina
Cypionka, Heribert
author_sort Schorn, Sina
collection PubMed
description Achromatium is the largest freshwater bacterium known to date and easily recognised by conspicuous calcite bodies filling the cell volume. Members of this genus are highly abundant in diverse aquatic sediments and may account for up to 90% of the bacterial biovolume in the oxic-anoxic interfaces. The high abundance implies that Achromatium is either rapidly growing or hardly prone to predation. As Achromatium is still uncultivated and does not appear to grow fast, one could assume that the cells might escape predation by their unusual shape and composition. However, we observed various members of the meiofauna grazing or parasitizing on Achromatium. By microphotography, we documented amoebae, ciliates, oligochetes and plathelminthes having Achromatium cells ingested. Some Achromatium cells harboured structures resembling sporangia of parasitic fungi (chytrids) that could be stained with the chitin-specific dye Calcofluor White. Many Achromatia carried prokaryotic epibionts in the slime layer surrounding the cells. Their regular distribution over the cell might indicate that they are commensalistic rather than harming their hosts. In conclusion, we report on various interactions of Achromatium with the sediment community and show that although Achromatium cells are a crispy diet, full of calcite bodies, predators do not spare them.
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spelling pubmed-61325392018-09-14 A Crispy Diet: Grazers of Achromatium oxaliferum in Lake Stechlin Sediments Schorn, Sina Cypionka, Heribert Microb Ecol Note Achromatium is the largest freshwater bacterium known to date and easily recognised by conspicuous calcite bodies filling the cell volume. Members of this genus are highly abundant in diverse aquatic sediments and may account for up to 90% of the bacterial biovolume in the oxic-anoxic interfaces. The high abundance implies that Achromatium is either rapidly growing or hardly prone to predation. As Achromatium is still uncultivated and does not appear to grow fast, one could assume that the cells might escape predation by their unusual shape and composition. However, we observed various members of the meiofauna grazing or parasitizing on Achromatium. By microphotography, we documented amoebae, ciliates, oligochetes and plathelminthes having Achromatium cells ingested. Some Achromatium cells harboured structures resembling sporangia of parasitic fungi (chytrids) that could be stained with the chitin-specific dye Calcofluor White. Many Achromatia carried prokaryotic epibionts in the slime layer surrounding the cells. Their regular distribution over the cell might indicate that they are commensalistic rather than harming their hosts. In conclusion, we report on various interactions of Achromatium with the sediment community and show that although Achromatium cells are a crispy diet, full of calcite bodies, predators do not spare them. Springer US 2018-02-28 2018 /pmc/articles/PMC6132539/ /pubmed/29492594 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00248-018-1158-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Note
Schorn, Sina
Cypionka, Heribert
A Crispy Diet: Grazers of Achromatium oxaliferum in Lake Stechlin Sediments
title A Crispy Diet: Grazers of Achromatium oxaliferum in Lake Stechlin Sediments
title_full A Crispy Diet: Grazers of Achromatium oxaliferum in Lake Stechlin Sediments
title_fullStr A Crispy Diet: Grazers of Achromatium oxaliferum in Lake Stechlin Sediments
title_full_unstemmed A Crispy Diet: Grazers of Achromatium oxaliferum in Lake Stechlin Sediments
title_short A Crispy Diet: Grazers of Achromatium oxaliferum in Lake Stechlin Sediments
title_sort crispy diet: grazers of achromatium oxaliferum in lake stechlin sediments
topic Note
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6132539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29492594
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00248-018-1158-4
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