Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges

The “Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum” group includes different clades of cyanobacteria with high 16S rRNA sequence identity (~99%) and is the most abundant and widespread cyanobacterial symbiont of marine sponges. The first draft genome of a “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” group member was recent...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Burgsdorf, Ilia, Slaby, Beate M., Handley, Kim M., Haber, Markus, Blom, Jochen, Marshall, Christopher W., Gilbert, Jack A., Hentschel, Ute, Steindler, Laura
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	American Society of Microbiology 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4453008/

id	pubmed-4453008
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-44530082015-06-11 Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges Burgsdorf, Ilia Slaby, Beate M. Handley, Kim M. Haber, Markus Blom, Jochen Marshall, Christopher W. Gilbert, Jack A. Hentschel, Ute Steindler, Laura Research Article The “Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum” group includes different clades of cyanobacteria with high 16S rRNA sequence identity (~99%) and is the most abundant and widespread cyanobacterial symbiont of marine sponges. The first draft genome of a “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” group member was recently published, providing evidence of genome reduction by loss of genes involved in several nonessential functions. However, “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” includes a variety of clades that may differ widely in genomic repertoire and consequently in physiology and symbiotic function. Here, we present three additional draft genomes of “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum,” each from a different clade. By comparing all four symbiont genomes to those of free-living cyanobacteria, we revealed general adaptations to life inside sponges and specific adaptations of each phylotype. Symbiont genomes shared about half of their total number of coding genes. Common traits of “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” members were a high abundance of DNA modification and recombination genes and a reduction in genes involved in inorganic ion transport and metabolism, cell wall biogenesis, and signal transduction mechanisms. Moreover, these symbionts were characterized by a reduced number of antioxidant enzymes and low-weight peptides of photosystem II compared to their free-living relatives. Variability within the “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” group was mostly related to immune system features, potential for siderophore-mediated iron transport, and dependency on methionine from external sources. The common absence of genes involved in synthesis of residues, typical of the O antigen of free-living Synechococcus species, suggests a novel mechanism utilized by these symbionts to avoid sponge predation and phage attack. American Society of Microbiology 2015-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4453008/ /pubmed/26037118 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00391-15 Text en Copyright © 2015 Burgsdorf et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) , which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Burgsdorf, Ilia Slaby, Beate M. Handley, Kim M. Haber, Markus Blom, Jochen Marshall, Christopher W. Gilbert, Jack A. Hentschel, Ute Steindler, Laura
spellingShingle	Burgsdorf, Ilia Slaby, Beate M. Handley, Kim M. Haber, Markus Blom, Jochen Marshall, Christopher W. Gilbert, Jack A. Hentschel, Ute Steindler, Laura Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges
author_facet	Burgsdorf, Ilia Slaby, Beate M. Handley, Kim M. Haber, Markus Blom, Jochen Marshall, Christopher W. Gilbert, Jack A. Hentschel, Ute Steindler, Laura
author_sort	Burgsdorf, Ilia
title	Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges
title_short	Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges
title_full	Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges
title_fullStr	Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges
title_full_unstemmed	Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges
title_sort	lifestyle evolution in cyanobacterial symbionts of sponges
description	The “Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum” group includes different clades of cyanobacteria with high 16S rRNA sequence identity (~99%) and is the most abundant and widespread cyanobacterial symbiont of marine sponges. The first draft genome of a “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” group member was recently published, providing evidence of genome reduction by loss of genes involved in several nonessential functions. However, “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” includes a variety of clades that may differ widely in genomic repertoire and consequently in physiology and symbiotic function. Here, we present three additional draft genomes of “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum,” each from a different clade. By comparing all four symbiont genomes to those of free-living cyanobacteria, we revealed general adaptations to life inside sponges and specific adaptations of each phylotype. Symbiont genomes shared about half of their total number of coding genes. Common traits of “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” members were a high abundance of DNA modification and recombination genes and a reduction in genes involved in inorganic ion transport and metabolism, cell wall biogenesis, and signal transduction mechanisms. Moreover, these symbionts were characterized by a reduced number of antioxidant enzymes and low-weight peptides of photosystem II compared to their free-living relatives. Variability within the “Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum” group was mostly related to immune system features, potential for siderophore-mediated iron transport, and dependency on methionine from external sources. The common absence of genes involved in synthesis of residues, typical of the O antigen of free-living Synechococcus species, suggests a novel mechanism utilized by these symbionts to avoid sponge predation and phage attack.
publisher	American Society of Microbiology
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4453008/
_version_	1613230960473538560

Lifestyle Evolution in Cyanobacterial Symbionts of Sponges

Similar Items