Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Society for Microbiology
Résumé : International audience
The bivalve Codakia orbicularis, hosting sulfur-oxidizing gill endosymbionts, was starved (in artificial seawater filtered through a 0.22- m-pore-size membrane) for a long-term experiment (4 months). The effects of starvation were observed using transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence in situ hybridization and catalyzed reporter deposition (CARD-FISH), and flow cytometry to monitor the anatomical and physiological modifications in the gill organization of the host and in the symbiotic population housed in bacteriocytes. The abundance of the symbiotic population decreased through starvation, with a loss of one-third of the bacterial population each month, as shown by CARD-FISH. At the same time, flow cytometry revealed significant changes in the physiology of symbiotic cells, with a decrease in cell size and modifications to the nucleic acid content, while most of the symbionts maintained a high respiratory activity (measured using the 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride method). Progressively, the number of symbiont subpopulations was reduced, and the subsequent multigenomic state, characteristic of this symbiont in freshly collected clams, turned into one and five equivalent genome copies for the two remaining subpopulations after 3 months. Concomitant structural modifications appeared in the gill organization. Lysosymes became visible in the bacteriocytes, while large symbionts disappeared, and bacteriocytes were gradually replaced by granule cells throughout the entire lateral zone. Those data suggested that host survival under these starvation conditions was linked to symbiont digestion as the main nutritional source.
ISSN: 0099-2240

hal-00750419
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-00750419
DOI : 10.1128/AEM.02659-08

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Society for Microbiology
Résumé : International audience
We investigated the characteristics of the sulfur-oxidizing symbiont hosted in the gills of Codakia orbicularis, a bivalve living in shallow marine tropical environments. Special attention was paid to describing the heterogeneity of the population by using single-cell approaches including flow cytometry (FCM) and different microscopic techniques and by analyzing a cell size fractionation experiment. Up to seven different subpopulations were distinguished by FCM based on nucleic acid content and light side scattering of the cells. The cell size analysis of symbionts showed that the symbiotic population was very heterogeneous in size, i.e., ranging from 0.5 to 5 _m in length, with variable amounts of intracellular sulfur. The side-scatter signal analyzed by FCM, which is often taken as a proxy of cell size, was greatly influenced by the sulfur content of the symbionts. FCM revealed an important heterogeneity in the relative nucleic acid content among the subclasses. The larger cells contained exceptionally high levels of nucleic acids, suggesting that these cells contained multiple copies of their genome, i.e., ranging from one copy for the smaller cells to more than four copies for the larger cells. The proportion of respiring symbionts (5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl-terazolium chloride positive) in the bacteriocytes of Codakia revealed that around 80% of the symbionts hosted by Codakia maintain respiratory activity throughout the year. These data allowed us to gain insight into the functioning of the symbionts within the host and to propose some hypotheses on how the growth of the symbionts is controlled by the host.
ISSN: 0099-2240

hal-00716079
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-00716079
DOI : 10.1128/AEM.01683-06

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
Aim : To assess gaps in the representation of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity among coastal fishes in Mediterranean marine-protected areas (MPAs).
ISSN: 1366-9516

hal-01135644
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01135644
DOI : 10.1111/ddi.12280