Open AccessPutative environmental transmission of sulfur‐oxidizing bacterial symbionts in tropical lucinid bivalves inhabiting various environments
Author(s) -
Gros Olivier,
WulfDurand Pascale,
Frenkiel Liliane,
Mouëza Marcel
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1998.tb12920.x
Subject(s) - mangrove , biology , bacteria , environmental dna , primer (cosmetics) , ecology , polymerase chain reaction , habitat , zoology , biodiversity , gene , chemistry , genetics , organic chemistry
Four tropical lucinids, Codakia orbiculata , C. pectinella , Linga pensylvanica , which inhabit sea‐grass beds, and Lucina pectinata , which inhabits mangrove swamps, harbor sulfur‐oxidizing endosymbiotic bacteria within bacteriocytes of their gill filaments. To elucidate the symbiont transmission mode in these bivalves, symbiont‐specific oligonucleotides were designed and used in polymerase chain reaction amplifications (PCR). For all species investigated, each primer set was unsuccessful in amplifying symbiont DNA targets from ovaries and testis, whereas successful amplifications were obtained from symbiont‐containing gill tissue. These data suggest that the transmission mode is environmental, independently of the lucinid habitat, as it is in the other tropical lucinid Codakia orbicularis .