Title |
Microsporidia-nematode associations in methane seeps reveal basal fungal parasitism in the deep sea
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Published in |
Frontiers in Microbiology, January 2014
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DOI | 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00043 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Amir Sapir, Adler R. Dillman, Stephanie A. Connon, Benjamin M. Grupe, Jeroen Ingels, Manuel Mundo-Ocampo, Lisa A. Levin, James G. Baldwin, Victoria J. Orphan, Paul W. Sternberg |
Abstract |
The deep sea is Earth's largest habitat but little is known about the nature of deep-sea parasitism. In contrast to a few characterized cases of bacterial and protistan parasites, the existence and biological significance of deep-sea parasitic fungi is yet to be understood. Here we report the discovery of a fungus-related parasitic microsporidium, Nematocenator marisprofundi n. gen. n. sp. that infects benthic nematodes at methane seeps on the Pacific Ocean floor. This infection is species-specific and has been temporally and spatially stable over 2 years of sampling, indicating an ecologically consistent host-parasite interaction. A high distribution of spores in the reproductive tracts of infected males and females and their absence from host nematodes' intestines suggests a sexual transmission strategy in contrast to the fecal-oral transmission of most microsporidia. N. marisprofundi targets the host's body wall muscles causing cell lysis, and in severe infection even muscle filament degradation. Phylogenetic analyses placed N. marisprofundi in a novel and basal clade not closely related to any described microsporidia clade, suggesting either that microsporidia-nematode parasitism occurred early in microsporidia evolution or that host specialization occurred late in an ancient deep-sea microsporidian lineage. Our findings reveal that methane seeps support complex ecosystems involving interkingdom interactions between bacteria, nematodes, and parasitic fungi and that microsporidia parasitism exists also in the deep-sea biosphere. |
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United Kingdom | 1 | 14% |
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Switzerland | 1 | 14% |
Unknown | 3 | 43% |
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Members of the public | 3 | 43% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United States | 3 | 4% |
France | 1 | 1% |
Germany | 1 | 1% |
Canada | 1 | 1% |
Unknown | 61 | 91% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
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Student > Ph. D. Student | 14 | 21% |
Researcher | 12 | 18% |
Student > Master | 6 | 9% |
Student > Bachelor | 5 | 7% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 4 | 6% |
Other | 11 | 16% |
Unknown | 15 | 22% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
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Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 18 | 27% |
Environmental Science | 13 | 19% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 11 | 16% |
Chemistry | 3 | 4% |
Computer Science | 2 | 3% |
Other | 7 | 10% |
Unknown | 13 | 19% |