Affiliation:
1. Ocean Genome Legacy Center, Department of Marine and Environmental Science, Northeastern University, Nahant, MA, USA
Abstract
Shipworms (Bivalvia, Teredinidae) are the principal consumers of wood in marine environments. Like most wood-eating organisms, they digest wood with the aid of cellulolytic enzymes supplied by symbiotic bacteria. However, in shipworms the symbiotic bacteria are not found in the digestive system. Instead, they are located intracellularly in the gland of Deshayes, a specialized tissue found within the gills. It has been independently demonstrated that symbiont-encoded cellulolytic enzymes are present in the digestive systems and gills of two shipworm species,
Bankia setacea
and
Lyrodus pedicellatus
, confirming that these enzymes are transported from the gills to the lumen of the gut. However, the mechanism of enzyme transport from gill to gut remains incompletely understood. Recently, a mechanism was proposed by which enzymes are transported within bacterial cells that are expelled from the gill and transported to the mouth by ciliary action of the branchial or food grooves. Here we use
in situ
immunohistochemical methods to provide evidence for a different mechanism in the shipworm
B. setacea
, in which cellulolytic enzymes are transported via the ducts of Deshayes, enigmatic structures first described 174 years ago, but whose function have remained unexplained.
Funder
National Institutes of Health
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
National Science Foundation
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Cited by
2 articles.
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