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A new bathymodioline mussel symbiosis at the Juan de Fuca hydrothermal vents

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Abstract

Until recently, the only major hydrothermal vent biogeographic province not known to include bathymodioline mussels was the spreading centers of the northeast Pacific, but deep-sea dives using DSV Alvin on the Endeavor segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge (47°56N 129°06W; ∼2,200 m depth) in August 1999 yielded the only recorded bathymodioline mytilids from these northeastern Pacific vents. One specimen in good condition was evaluated for its relatedness to other deep-sea bathymodioline mussels and for the occurrence of chemoautotrophic and/or methanotrophic symbionts in the gills. Phylogenetic analyses of the host cytochrome oxidase I gene show this mussel shares evolutionary alliances with hydrothermal vent and cold seep mussels from the genus Bathymodiolus, and is distinct from other known species of deep-sea bathymodiolines, suggesting this mussel is a newly discovered species. Ultrastructural analyses of gill tissue revealed the presence of coccoid bacteria that lacked the intracellular membranes observed in methanotrophic symbionts. The bacteria may be extracellular but poor condition of the fixed tissue complicated conclusions regarding symbiont location. A single gamma-proteobacterial 16S rRNA sequence was amplified from gill tissue and directly sequenced from gill tissue. This sequence clusters with other mussel chemoautotrophic symbiont 16S rRNA sequences, which suggests a chemoautotrophic, rather than methanotrophic, symbiosis in this mussel. Stable carbon (δ13C = −26.6%) and nitrogen (δ15N = +5.19%) isotope ratios were also consistent with those reported for other chemoautotroph-mussel symbioses. Despite the apparent rarity of these mussels at the Juan de Fuca vent sites, this finding extends the range of the bathymodioline mussels to all hydrothermal vent biogeographic provinces studied to date.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the captain and crews of the R/V Atlantis, as well as the pilots and crews of the DSV Alvin for their invaluable assistance. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for helpful and constructive comments on the manuscript. Special thanks to A. Bates and L. Kerr for TEM assistance. Special thanks are also due the REVEL teachers Ruth Cruz and Michelle Williams for discovering the mussel specimen described here. We gratefully acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (NSF-OCE OCE-9633105 to CRF), the NOAA’s Undersea Research Program through the West Coast and Polar Regions National Undersea Research Center at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF-WA # 98-06 to CMC), and the NIH-Genetics Training Grant (ZPM).

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Author notes

  1. Z. P. McKiness

    Present address: National Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, 2300 Dayton Road, Ames, IA, 50010, USA

  2. E. R. McMullin

    Present address: College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, 700 Pilottown Road, Lewes, DE, 19958, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Z. P. McKiness & C. M. Cavanaugh

  2. Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, 208 Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    E. R. McMullin & C. R. Fisher

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  1. Z. P. McKiness
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  2. E. R. McMullin
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  3. C. R. Fisher
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  4. C. M. Cavanaugh
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Correspondence to C. M. Cavanaugh.

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Communicated by J.P. Grassle, New Brunswick

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McKiness, Z.P., McMullin, E.R., Fisher, C.R. et al. A new bathymodioline mussel symbiosis at the Juan de Fuca hydrothermal vents. Marine Biology 148, 109–116 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-005-0065-7

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