TY - JOUR
T1 - A microbial factory for defensive kahalalides in a tripartite marine symbiosis
AU - Zan, Jindong
AU - Li, Zhiyuan
AU - Diarey Tianero, Ma
AU - Davis, Jeanette
AU - Hill, Russell T.
AU - Abou Donia, Mohamed S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are indebted to J. Davidson and the late Ruth Gates at HIMB for laboratory space and assistance during the field work conducted in this study. We thank G. Laevsky, the Molecular Biology Confocal Microscopy Facility (a Nikon Center of Excellence), J. Yan, and B. Bassler for assistance with confocal microscopy; W. Wang and the Lewis Sigler Institute sequencing core facility for assistance with high-throughput Illumina and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing; L. Tallon, L. Sadzewicz, and the Institute for Genome Sciences, Genomics Resource Center, University of Maryland, for Pac Bio sequencing; M. Cahn and J. Lopez for assistance with metagenomic data analysis; M. T. Hamann, W. L. Cheung-Lee, and A. J. Link for valuable scientific insights about the project; S. Chatterjee for general assistance; and the rest of the Donia lab for useful discussions. Funding for this project has been provided by Princeton University, M.S.D. is funded by an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (ID 1DP2AI124441), and Z.L. is supported by Princeton Center for Theoretical Science and Center for the Physics of Biological Function, the National Science Foundation Physics Frontier Center grant through the Center for the Physics of Biological Function (PHY-1734030), and an NSF grant (PHY-1607612)
Publisher Copyright:
2017 © The Authors
PY - 2019/6/14
Y1 - 2019/6/14
N2 - Chemical defense against predators is widespread in natural ecosystems. Occasionally, taxonomically distant organisms share the same defense chemical. Here, we describe an unusual tripartite marine symbiosis, in which an intracellular bacterial symbiont (“Candidatus Endobryopsis kahalalidefaciens”) uses a diverse array of biosynthetic enzymes to convert simple substrates into a library of complex molecules (the kahalalides) for chemical defense of the host, the alga Bryopsis sp., against predation. The kahalalides are subsequently hijacked by a third partner, the herbivorous mollusk Elysia rufescens, and employed similarly for defense. “Ca. E. kahalalidefaciens” has lost many essential traits for free living and acts as a factory for kahalalide production. This interaction between a bacterium, an alga, and an animal highlights the importance of chemical defense in the evolution of complex symbioses.
AB - Chemical defense against predators is widespread in natural ecosystems. Occasionally, taxonomically distant organisms share the same defense chemical. Here, we describe an unusual tripartite marine symbiosis, in which an intracellular bacterial symbiont (“Candidatus Endobryopsis kahalalidefaciens”) uses a diverse array of biosynthetic enzymes to convert simple substrates into a library of complex molecules (the kahalalides) for chemical defense of the host, the alga Bryopsis sp., against predation. The kahalalides are subsequently hijacked by a third partner, the herbivorous mollusk Elysia rufescens, and employed similarly for defense. “Ca. E. kahalalidefaciens” has lost many essential traits for free living and acts as a factory for kahalalide production. This interaction between a bacterium, an alga, and an animal highlights the importance of chemical defense in the evolution of complex symbioses.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.aaw6732
DO - 10.1126/science.aaw6732
M3 - Article
C2 - 31196985
AN - SCOPUS:85067597837
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 364
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6445
M1 - eaaw6732
ER -