A
symbiotic bacterium refers to a type of bacteria that has a mutually beneficial relationship with another organism. Both the bacterium and the organism it lives with depend on each other and help each other survive.
Full definition
Called odilorhabdins, or ODLs, the antibiotics are produced
by symbiotic bacteria found in soil - dwelling nematode worms that colonize insects for food.
An important clue lies in how psyllids interact with
symbiotic bacteria in its gut, especially Wolbachia pipientis.
Boyd et al. sequenced the genomes of
symbiotic bacteria from human lice as well as the closely related chimpanzee, gorilla and red colobus monkey lice.
These insects team up
with symbiotic bacteria which produce an antibiotic cocktail of up to 45 different substances within a single species to protect their offspring against mold fungi.
But they can't do it alone: The clams survive
because symbiotic bacteria inside their gill cells convert the poisons to nutrients.
«Beewolves have been successfully using the same antibiotics for 68 million years: The antibiotic cocktail produced by
symbiotic bacteria changed very little in the course of evolution and its antipathogenic effect remained unaltered.»
«We think that the carbohydrate binding modules play a key role in determining the spatial distribution of
symbiotic bacteria across and along the gastrointestinal tract, which helps to maintain a beneficial relationship with bacteria inhabiting different niches in the gut» said Dr Juge.
«But, herbivores can evade plant defenses by
using symbiotic bacteria that deceive the plant into perceiving an herbivore threat as microbial, suppressing the plant's defenses against herbivores.»
Now researchers in California and Virginia have
identified symbiotic bacteria living on amphibians» skins that protects them from the deadly fungal disease, and later this summer the scientists will collect some of the microbial samples, culture them in the lab, and use the product to inoculate some frogs in California's Sierra Nevada to see if the approach stops chytrid in the wild.
The six - inch - long white crab is eyeless, and its claw arms are covered with hairlike filaments filled with what are most
likely symbiotic bacteria.
Dissection
revealed symbiotic bacteria living within the worms, accounting for both their color and their source of nutrition — oils and fats found in bone.
They are particularly interested in knowing whether the fly produces the substance itself or
whether symbiotic bacteria may be involved in its production.
Microbe - free bugs suffer high mortality and produce fewer young than bugs that have their microbial partners (see our press release «Bugs
need symbiotic bacteria to exploit plant seeds,» January 9, 2013).
The increased water temperature will
cause symbiotic bacteria in corals of the Great Barrier Reef to produce toxically high levels of oxygen, which will kill colonies of coral that are centuries or even millennia old and occupy the equivalent of Japan's landmass under water.
For instance, many deep - sea fish
harbor symbiotic bacteria that emit light, which the fish use to signal other members of their species.
Like other members of the legume family, mesquite roots coexist
with symbiotic bacteria that fix nitrogen in the soil.
The antibiotic cocktail produced by
symbiotic bacteria changed very little in the course of evolution and its antipathogenic effect remained unaltered
By contrast, in the tube worm millions
of symbiotic bacteria that dwell within the its large plumes grab hydrogen sulfide and other noxious chemicals that seep from the vents and convert them into food and energy for their host, a process called chemosynthesis.
Symbiotic bacteria living inside sponges hoard precious phosphorus, a step that may have been key to animal proliferation over 500 million years ago
Discovered in 1977 at the Galapagos Rift (Jones 1981), adults are nourished entirely
by symbiotic bacteria that feed on sulfur compounds found at hydrothermal vents.
Until now, the molecular details of the relationship between the filarial nematodes and
their symbiotic bacteria have been poorly understood.
Some symbiotic bacteria living inside Colorado potato beetles can trick plants into reacting to a microbial attack rather than that of a chewing herbivore, according to a team of Penn State researchers who found that the beetles with bacteria were healthier and grew better.
The symbiotic bacteria only develop in the beetle gut when feeding on tomatoes and potatoes.
They came by acquiring a whole genome of
a symbiotic bacterium that could already sense light or motion.
The symbiotic bacteria produce compounds that can kill the parasitic fungi without damaging the food source.
The data provided a new perspective on the evolutionary tree of
these symbiotic bacteria.
It turns out that blood sucking lice are themselves host to
symbiotic bacteria.
Boyd also noted that «congruence between the evolutionary trees of lice and
symbiotic bacteria can be traced to 20 - 25 mya when the lice parasitizing monkeys diverged from a common ancestor of hominid lice.»
Because
the symbiotic bacteria studied here are tied to a known evolutionary history between lice and primates, this makes an ideal system to study bacterial genome evolution» said Boyd.
Symbiotic bacteria may help frogs and other amphibians ward off the chytrid fungus plague wiping out populations worldwide
Plants that require
symbiotic bacteria, like Orchidaceae, are difficult to germinate and cultivate in an artificial environment where symbiotic bacteria are less likely to be present.
To test the cospeciation hypothesis, Peek analyzed the DNA of nine different clam species and
their symbiotic bacteria, then determined statistically the most likely family trees of each organism.
When the worms were healthy, they housed a large population of Bacteroides — a group of helpful, supportive,
symbiotic bacteria — and a smaller population of Proteobacteria — a group that contains a number of dangerous human pathogens.
Vrijenhoek and his collaborators are trying to figure out if the different vent communities in the Gulf are controlled by differences in water depth, geochemistry,
symbiotic bacteria, or perhaps other unanticipated factors.
Or perhaps it will be an archaeon with signs of
a symbiotic bacterium living within.
After filtering the genetic data from the fly's own chromosomes, mitochondria and
symbiotic bacteria, what is left is the microbiome that can be matched to a database of all known bacteria DNA and RNA.
«It's the same process as for single cell genomics, but for aggregates of
symbiotic bacteria and archaea,» said DOE JGI Microscale Applications Group head Rex Malmstrom of the technique called BONCAT - FACS (BONCAT — Fluorescence - Activated Cell Sorting).
Some researchers think that coral might adapt to hotter water by switching its algae or
symbiotic bacteria to heat tolerant types — but that would take more than 10 days.
With just 121 protein - coding genes, the diminutive Tremblaya princeps,
a symbiotic bacterium that lives inside specialized cells of the sap - eating mealybug, has the smallest known genome of any cellular organism on the planet.
Symbiotic bacteria that dwell within insect cells are intricately intertwined with their hosts, prompting scientists to question when these bacteria stop being bona fide organisms and become part of the cell