The life cycle of the deep-sea Bathymodiolus metaorganism: symbiont transmission and colonization of the host gill epithelium (C03)

深海贻贝依靠鳃上皮内的细胞内共生细菌，利用环境中硫化氢和甲烷等还原化学物质作为能量来源，将二氧化碳或甲烷固定在生物质中。许多深海生物物种拥有两种共生生物，一种单一的硫氧化物种和一种单一的甲烷氧化物种。然而，最近的分子研究表明，这两个共生物种之间的菌株多样性比先前基于16S rRNA基因分析的假设要大。在此，我们拟研究深海藻共生种群动态以及微生物多样性对元生物发育和功能的影响。我们的研究有望揭示共生生物获取和传播模式的生态学和进化动力学的新见解，并更好地理解共生生物多样性在元生物生态学和进化中的作用。

Bathymodiolus mussels rely on intracellular symbiotic bacteria in their gill epithelia that use reduced chemicals from the environment such as hydrogen sulfide and methane as an energy source to fix carbon dioxide or methane into biomass. Many Bathymodiolus species host two co-occurring symbionts, a single sulfur-oxidizing species and a single methane-oxidizing species. However, recent molecular studies revealed that strain diversity within these two symbiont species is greater than previously assumed based on 16S rRNA gene analyses. Here we propose to study the Bathymodiolus symbiont population dynamics and the impact of microbial diversification on the metaorganism development and function. Our research is expected to reveal new insights into the ecology and evolutionary dynamics of symbiont acquisition and transmission mode, as well as a better understanding of the role of symbiont diversity in the ecology and evolution of metaorganisms.