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

Bathymodiolus贻贝依赖于其鳃上皮细胞中的细胞内共生细菌，这些细菌使用来自环境的还原化学物质，如硫化氢和甲烷作为能源，将二氧化碳或甲烷固定到生物质中。许多Bathymodiolus物种宿主两种共存的共生体，一种硫氧化物种和一种甲烷氧化物种。然而，最近的分子生物学研究表明，这两个共生物种的菌株多样性大于先前基于16S rRNA基因分析的假设。在这里，我们建议研究Bathymodiolus共生种群动态和微生物多样化的影响的后生生物的发展和功能。我们的研究有望揭示共生体获取和传播模式的生态学和进化动力学的新见解，以及更好地理解共生体多样性在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.