Hemocytes released in seawater act as Trojan horses for spreading of bacterial infections in mussels

Global warming has been associated with increased episodes of mass mortality events in invertebrates, most notably in bivalves. Although the spread of pathogens is one of multiple factors that contribute to such mass mortality events, we don’t fully understand the pathophysiological consequences of sea warming on invertebrates. In this work, we show that in temperature stress conditions, circulating hemocytes in mussels leave the hemolymph to gain access to the intervalvar fluid before being released in seawater. External hemocytes can survive for several hours in seawater before entering other mussels. When infected by bacteria, externally-infected hemocytes can enter naive mussels and promote bacterial dissemination in the host. These results reveal the existence of a new opportunistic mechanism used by pathogens to disseminate in marine ecosystems. Such mechanisms may explain how thermal anomalies triggered by global warming can favor episodic mass mortality observed in recent years in marine ecosystem.