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Natural Shifts in Endosymbionts' Occurrence and Relative Frequency in Their Ciliate Host Population

The role of bacterial endosymbionts harbored by heterotrophic Paramecium species is complex. Obligate intracellular bacteria supposedly always inflict costs as the host is the only possible provider of resources. However, several experimental studies have shown that paramecia carrying bacterial endo...

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Autores principales: Flemming, Felicitas E., Grosser, Katrin, Schrallhammer, Martina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8787144/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35087493
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.791615
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author Flemming, Felicitas E.
Grosser, Katrin
Schrallhammer, Martina
author_facet Flemming, Felicitas E.
Grosser, Katrin
Schrallhammer, Martina
author_sort Flemming, Felicitas E.
collection PubMed
description The role of bacterial endosymbionts harbored by heterotrophic Paramecium species is complex. Obligate intracellular bacteria supposedly always inflict costs as the host is the only possible provider of resources. However, several experimental studies have shown that paramecia carrying bacterial endosymbionts can benefit from their infection. Here, we address the question which endosymbionts occur in natural paramecia populations isolated from a small lake over a period of 5 years and which factors might explain observed shifts and persistence in the symbionts occurrence. One hundred and nineteen monoclonal strains were investigated and approximately two-third harbored intracellular bacteria. The majority of infected paramecia carried the obligate endosymbiotic “Candidatus Megaira polyxenophila”, followed by Caedimonas varicaedens, and Holospora undulata. The latter was only detected in a single strain. While “Ca. M. polyxenophila” was observed in seven out of 13 samplings, C. varicaedens presence was limited to a single sampling occasion. After the appearance of C. varicaedens, “Ca. M. polyxenophila” prevalence dramatically dropped with some delay but recovered to original levels at the end of our study. Potential mechanisms explaining these observations include differences in infectivity, host range, and impact on host fitness as well as host competitive capacities. Growth experiments revealed fitness advantages for infected paramecia harboring “Ca. M. polyxenophila” as well as C. varicaedens. Furthermore, we showed that cells carrying C. varicaedens gain a competitive advantage from the symbiosis-derived killer trait. Other characteristics like infectivity and overlapping host range were taken into consideration, but the observed temporal persistence of “Ca. M. polyxenophila” is most likely explained by the positive effect this symbiont provides to its host.
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spelling pubmed-87871442022-01-26 Natural Shifts in Endosymbionts' Occurrence and Relative Frequency in Their Ciliate Host Population Flemming, Felicitas E. Grosser, Katrin Schrallhammer, Martina Front Microbiol Microbiology The role of bacterial endosymbionts harbored by heterotrophic Paramecium species is complex. Obligate intracellular bacteria supposedly always inflict costs as the host is the only possible provider of resources. However, several experimental studies have shown that paramecia carrying bacterial endosymbionts can benefit from their infection. Here, we address the question which endosymbionts occur in natural paramecia populations isolated from a small lake over a period of 5 years and which factors might explain observed shifts and persistence in the symbionts occurrence. One hundred and nineteen monoclonal strains were investigated and approximately two-third harbored intracellular bacteria. The majority of infected paramecia carried the obligate endosymbiotic “Candidatus Megaira polyxenophila”, followed by Caedimonas varicaedens, and Holospora undulata. The latter was only detected in a single strain. While “Ca. M. polyxenophila” was observed in seven out of 13 samplings, C. varicaedens presence was limited to a single sampling occasion. After the appearance of C. varicaedens, “Ca. M. polyxenophila” prevalence dramatically dropped with some delay but recovered to original levels at the end of our study. Potential mechanisms explaining these observations include differences in infectivity, host range, and impact on host fitness as well as host competitive capacities. Growth experiments revealed fitness advantages for infected paramecia harboring “Ca. M. polyxenophila” as well as C. varicaedens. Furthermore, we showed that cells carrying C. varicaedens gain a competitive advantage from the symbiosis-derived killer trait. Other characteristics like infectivity and overlapping host range were taken into consideration, but the observed temporal persistence of “Ca. M. polyxenophila” is most likely explained by the positive effect this symbiont provides to its host. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8787144/ /pubmed/35087493 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.791615 Text en Copyright © 2022 Flemming, Grosser and Schrallhammer. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Flemming, Felicitas E.
Grosser, Katrin
Schrallhammer, Martina
Natural Shifts in Endosymbionts' Occurrence and Relative Frequency in Their Ciliate Host Population
title Natural Shifts in Endosymbionts' Occurrence and Relative Frequency in Their Ciliate Host Population
title_full Natural Shifts in Endosymbionts' Occurrence and Relative Frequency in Their Ciliate Host Population
title_fullStr Natural Shifts in Endosymbionts' Occurrence and Relative Frequency in Their Ciliate Host Population
title_full_unstemmed Natural Shifts in Endosymbionts' Occurrence and Relative Frequency in Their Ciliate Host Population
title_short Natural Shifts in Endosymbionts' Occurrence and Relative Frequency in Their Ciliate Host Population
title_sort natural shifts in endosymbionts' occurrence and relative frequency in their ciliate host population
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8787144/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35087493
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.791615
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