SoxY gene family expansion underpins adaptation to diverse hosts and environments in symbiotic sulfide oxidizers.

Sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB) have developed distinct ecological strategies to obtain reduced sulfur compounds for growth. These range from specialists that can only use a limited range of reduced sulfur compounds to generalists that can use many different forms as electron donors. Forming intimate symbioses with animal hosts is another highly successful ecological strategy for SOB, as animals, through their behavior and physiology, can enable access to sulfur compounds. Symbioses have evolved multiple times in a range of animal hosts and from several lineages of SOB. They have successfully colonized a wide range of habitats, from seagrass beds to hydrothermal vents, with varying availability of symbiont energy sources. Our extensive analyses of sulfur transformation pathways in 234 genomes of symbiotic and free-living SOB revealed widespread conservation in metabolic pathways for sulfur oxidation in symbionts from different host species and environments, raising the question of how they have adapted to such a wide range of distinct habitats. We discovered a gene family expansion of soxY in these genomes, with up to five distinct copies per genome. Symbionts harboring only the "canonical" soxY were typically ecological "specialists" that are associated with specific host subfamilies or environments (e.g., hydrothermal vents, mangroves). Conversely, symbionts with multiple divergent soxY genes formed versatile associations across diverse hosts in various marine environments. We hypothesize that expansion and diversification of the soxY gene family could be one genomic mechanism supporting the metabolic flexibility of symbiotic SOB enabling them and their hosts to thrive in a range of different and dynamic environments.IMPORTANCESulfur metabolism is thought to be one of the most ancient mechanisms for energy generation in microorganisms. A diverse range of microorganisms today rely on sulfur oxidation for their metabolism. They can be free-living, or they can live in symbiosis with animal hosts, where they power entire ecosystems in the absence of light, such as in the deep sea. In the millions of years since they evolved, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria have adopted several highly successful strategies; some are ecological "specialists," and some are "generalists," but which genetic features underpin these ecological strategies are not well understood. We discovered a gene family that has become expanded in those species that also seem to be "generalists," revealing that duplication, repurposing, and reshuffling existing genes can be a powerful mechanism driving ecological lifestyle shifts.

Adaptations to nitrogen availability drive ecological divergence of chemosynthetic symbionts.

Bacterial symbionts, with their shorter generation times and capacity for horizontal gene transfer (HGT), play a critical role in allowing marine organisms to cope with environmental change. The closure of the Isthmus of Panama created distinct environmental conditions in the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) and Caribbean, offering a "natural experiment" for studying how closely related animals evolve and adapt under environmental change. However, the role of bacterial symbionts in this process is often overlooked. We sequenced the genomes of endosymbiotic bacteria in two sets of sister species of chemosymbiotic bivalves from the genera Codakia and Ctena (family Lucinidae) collected on either side of the Isthmus, to investigate how differing environmental conditions have influenced the selection of symbionts and their metabolic capabilities. The lucinid sister species hosted different Candidatus Thiodiazotropha symbionts and only those from the Caribbean had the genetic potential for nitrogen fixation, while those from the TEP did not. Interestingly, this nitrogen-fixing ability did not correspond to symbiont phylogeny, suggesting convergent evolution of nitrogen fixation potential under nutrient-poor conditions. Reconstructing the evolutionary history of the nifHDKT operon by including other lucinid symbiont genomes from around the world further revealed that the last common ancestor (LCA) of Ca. Thiodiazotropha lacked nif genes, and populations in oligotrophic habitats later re-acquired the nif operon through HGT from the Sedimenticola symbiont lineage. Our study suggests that HGT of the nif operon has facilitated niche diversification of the globally distributed Ca. Thiodiazotropha endolucinida species clade. It highlights the importance of nitrogen availability in driving the ecological diversification of chemosynthetic symbiont species and the role that bacterial symbionts may play in the adaptation of marine organisms to changing environmental conditions.

Gene loss and symbiont switching during adaptation to the deep sea in a globally distributed symbiosis.

Chemosynthetic symbioses between bacteria and invertebrates occur worldwide from coastal sediments to the deep sea. Most host groups are restricted to either shallow or deep waters. In contrast, Lucinidae, the most species-rich family of chemosymbiotic invertebrates, has both shallow- and deep-sea representatives. Multiple lucinid species have independently colonized the deep sea, which provides a unique framework for understanding the role microbial symbionts play in evolutionary transitions between shallow and deep waters. Lucinids acquire their symbionts from their surroundings during early development, which may allow them to flexibly acquire symbionts that are adapted to local environments. Via metagenomic analyses of museum and other samples collected over decades, we investigated the biodiversity and metabolic capabilities of the symbionts of 22 mostly deep-water lucinid species. We aimed to test the theory that the symbiont played a role in adaptation to life in deep-sea habitats. We identified 16 symbiont species, mostly within the previously described genus Ca. Thiodiazotropha. Most genomic functions were shared by both shallow-water and deep-sea Ca. Thiodiazotropha, though nitrogen fixation was exclusive to shallow-water species. We discovered multiple cases of symbiont switching near deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, where distantly related hosts convergently acquired novel symbionts from a different bacterial order. Finally, analyses of selection revealed consistently stronger purifying selection on symbiont genomes in two extreme habitats - hydrothermal vents and an oxygen-minimum zone. Our findings reveal that shifts in symbiont metabolic capability and, in some cases, acquisition of a novel symbiont accompanied adaptation of lucinids to challenging deep-sea habitats.

Microbial communities in developmental stages of lucinid bivalves.

Bivalves from the family Lucinidae host sulfur-oxidizing bacterial symbionts, which are housed inside specialized gill epithelial cells and are assumed to be acquired from the environment. However, little is known about the Lucinidae life cycle and symbiont acquisition in the wild. Some lucinid species broadcast their gametes into the surrounding water column, however, a few have been found to externally brood their offspring by the forming gelatinous egg masses. So far, symbiont transmission has only been investigated in one species that reproduces via broadcast spawning. Here, we show that the lucinid Loripes orbiculatus from the West African coast forms egg masses and these are dominated by diverse members of the Alphaproteobacteria, Clostridia, and Gammaproteobacteria. The microbial communities of the egg masses were distinct from those in the environments surrounding lucinids, indicating that larvae may shape their associated microbiomes. The gill symbiont of the adults was undetectable in the developmental stages, supporting horizontal transmission of the symbiont with environmental symbiont acquisition after hatching from the egg masses. These results demonstrate that L. orbiculatus acquires symbionts from the environment independent of the host's reproductive strategy (brooding or broadcast spawning) and reveal previously unknown associations with microbes during lucinid early development.

Natural experiments and long-term monitoring are critical to understand and predict marine host-microbe ecology and evolution.

Marine multicellular organisms host a diverse collection of bacteria, archaea, microbial eukaryotes, and viruses that form their microbiome. Such host-associated microbes can significantly influence the host's physiological capacities; however, the identity and functional role(s) of key members of the microbiome ("core microbiome") in most marine hosts coexisting in natural settings remain obscure. Also unclear is how dynamic interactions between hosts and the immense standing pool of microbial genetic variation will affect marine ecosystems' capacity to adjust to environmental changes. Here, we argue that significantly advancing our understanding of how host-associated microbes shape marine hosts' plastic and adaptive responses to environmental change requires (i) recognizing that individual host-microbe systems do not exist in an ecological or evolutionary vacuum and (ii) expanding the field toward long-term, multidisciplinary research on entire communities of hosts and microbes. Natural experiments, such as time-calibrated geological events associated with well-characterized environmental gradients, provide unique ecological and evolutionary contexts to address this challenge. We focus here particularly on mutualistic interactions between hosts and microbes, but note that many of the same lessons and approaches would apply to other types of interactions.

Global biogeography of chemosynthetic symbionts reveals both localized and globally distributed symbiont groups.

In the ocean, most hosts acquire their symbionts from the environment. Due to the immense spatial scales involved, our understanding of the biogeography of hosts and symbionts in marine systems is patchy, although this knowledge is essential for understanding fundamental aspects of symbiosis such as host-symbiont specificity and evolution. Lucinidae is the most species-rich and widely distributed family of marine bivalves hosting autotrophic bacterial endosymbionts. Previous molecular surveys identified location-specific symbiont types that "promiscuously" form associations with multiple divergent cooccurring host species. This flexibility of host-microbe pairings is thought to underpin their global success, as it allows hosts to form associations with locally adapted symbionts. We used metagenomics to investigate the biodiversity, functional variability, and genetic exchange among the endosymbionts of 12 lucinid host species from across the globe. We report a cosmopolitan symbiont species, Candidatus Thiodiazotropha taylori, associated with multiple lucinid host species. Ca. T. taylori has achieved more success at dispersal and establishing symbioses with lucinids than any other symbiont described thus far. This discovery challenges our understanding of symbiont dispersal and location-specific colonization and suggests both symbiont and host flexibility underpin the ecological and evolutionary success of the lucinid symbiosis.

The symbiotic 'all-rounders': Partnerships between marine animals and chemosynthetic nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Nitrogen fixation is a widespread metabolic trait in certain types of microorganisms called diazotrophs. Bioavailable nitrogen is limited in various habitats on land and in the sea, and accordingly, a range of plant, animal, and single-celled eukaryotes have evolved symbioses with diverse diazotrophic bacteria, with enormous economic and ecological benefits. Until recently, all known nitrogen-fixing symbionts were heterotrophs such as nodulating rhizobia, or photoautotrophs such as cyanobacteria. In 2016, the first chemoautotrophic nitrogen-fixing symbionts were discovered in a common family of marine clams, the Lucinidae. Chemosynthetic nitrogen-fixing symbionts use the chemical energy stored in reduced sulfur compounds to power carbon and nitrogen fixation, making them metabolic 'all-rounders' with multiple functions in the symbiosis. This distinguishes them from heterotrophic symbionts that require a source of carbon from their host, and their chemosynthetic metabolism distinguishes them from photoautotrophic symbionts that produce oxygen, a potent inhibitor of nitrogenase. In this review, we consider evolutionary aspects of this discovery, by comparing strategies that have evolved for hosting intracellular nitrogen-fixing symbionts in plants and animals. The symbiosis between lucinid clams and chemosynthetic nitrogen-fixing bacteria also has important ecological impacts, as they form a nested symbiosis with endangered marine seagrasses. Notably, nitrogen fixation by lucinid symbionts may help support seagrass health by providing a source of nitrogen in seagrass habitats. These discoveries were enabled by new techniques for understanding the activity of microbial populations in natural environments. However, an animal (or plant) host represents a diverse landscape of microbial niches due to its structural, chemical, immune and behavioural properties. In future, methods that resolve microbial activity at the single cell level will provide radical new insights into the regulation of nitrogen fixation in chemosynthetic symbionts, shedding new light on the evolution of nitrogen-fixing symbioses in contrasting hosts and environments.

Host-associated microbiomes drive structure and function of marine ecosystems.

The significance of symbioses between eukaryotic hosts and microbes extends from the organismal to the ecosystem level and underpins the health of Earth's most threatened marine ecosystems. Despite rapid growth in research on host-associated microbes, from individual microbial symbionts to host-associated consortia of significantly relevant taxa, little is known about their interactions with the vast majority of marine host species. We outline research priorities to strengthen our current knowledge of host-microbiome interactions and how they shape marine ecosystems. We argue that such advances in research will help predict responses of species, communities, and ecosystems to stressors driven by human activity and inform future management strategies.

Organ transcriptomes of the lucinid clam Loripes orbiculatus (Poli, 1791) provide insights into their specialised roles in the biology of a chemosymbiotic bivalve.

BACKGROUND: The lucinid clam Loripes orbiculatus lives in a nutritional symbiosis with sulphur-oxidizing bacteria housed in its gills. Although our understanding of the lucinid endosymbiont physiology and metabolism has made significant progress, relatively little is known about how the host regulates the symbiosis at the genetic and molecular levels. We generated transcriptomes from four L. orbiculatus organs (gills, foot, visceral mass, and mantle) for differential expression analyses, to better understand this clam's physiological adaptations to a chemosymbiotic lifestyle, and how it regulates nutritional and immune interactions with its symbionts. RESULTS: The transcriptome profile of the symbiont-housing gill suggests the regulation of apoptosis and innate immunity are important processes in this organ. We also identified many transcripts encoding ion transporters from the solute carrier family that possibly allow metabolite exchange between host and symbiont. Despite the clam holobiont's clear reliance on chemosynthesis, the clam's visceral mass, which contains the digestive tract, is characterised by enzymes involved in digestion, carbohydrate recognition and metabolism, suggesting that L. orbiculatus has a mixotrophic diet. The foot transcriptome is dominated by the biosynthesis of glycoproteins for the construction of mucus tubes, and receptors that mediate the detection of chemical cues in the environment. CONCLUSIONS: The transcriptome profiles of gills, mantle, foot and visceral mass provide insights into the molecular basis underlying the functional specialisation of bivalve organs adapted to a chemosymbiotic lifestyle.

The characterization of sponge NLRs provides insight into the origin and evolution of this innate immune gene family in animals.

The "Nucleotide-binding domain and Leucine-rich Repeat" (NLR) genes are a family of intracellular pattern recognition receptors (PRR) that are a critical component of the metazoan innate immune system, involved in both defense against pathogenic microorganisms and in beneficial interactions with symbionts. To investigate the origin and evolution of the NLR gene family, we characterized the full NACHT domain-containing gene complement in the genome of the sponge, Amphimedon queenslandica. As sister group to all animals, sponges are ideally placed to inform our understanding of the early evolution of this ancient PRR family. Amphimedon queenslandica has a large NACHT domain-containing gene complement that is dominated by bona fide NLRs (n = 135) with varied phylogenetic histories. Approximately half of these have a tripartite architecture that includes an N-terminal CARD or DEATH domain. The multiplicity of the A. queenslandica NLR genes and the high variability across the N- and C-terminal domains are consistent with involvement in immunity. We also provide new insight into the evolution of NLRs in invertebrates through comparative genomic analysis of multiple metazoan and nonmetazoan taxa. Specifically, we demonstrate that the NLR gene family appears to be a metazoan innovation, characterized by two major gene lineages that may have originated with the last common eumetazoan ancestor. Subsequent lineage-specific gene duplication, gene loss and domain shuffling all have played an important role in the highly dynamic evolutionary history of invertebrate NLRs.

Evolution of the capsular operon of Streptococcus iniae in response to vaccination.

Streptococcus iniae causes severe septicemia and meningitis in farmed fish and is also occasionally zoonotic. Vaccination against S. iniae is problematic, with frequent breakdown of protection in vaccinated fish. The major protective antigens in S. iniae are the polysaccharides of the capsule, which are essential for virulence. Capsular biosynthesis is driven and regulated by a 21-kb operon comprising up to 20 genes. In a long-term study, we have sequenced the capsular operon of strains that have been used in autogenous vaccines across Australia and compared it with the capsular operon sequences of strains subsequently isolated from infected vaccinated fish. Intriguingly, strains isolated from vaccinated fish that subsequently become infected have coding mutations that are confined to a limited number of genes in the cps operon, with the remainder of the genes in the operon remaining stable. Mutations in strains in diseased vaccinated fish occur in key genes in the capsular operon that are associated with polysaccharide configuration (cpsG) and with regulation of biosynthesis (cpsD and cpsE). This, along with high ratios of nonsynonymous to synonymous mutations within the cps genes, suggests that immune response directed predominantly against capsular polysaccharide may be driving evolution in a very specific set of genes in the operon. From these data, it may be possible to design a simple polyvalent vaccine with a greater operational life span than the current monovalent killed bacterins.