Free-Living Tube Worm Endosymbionts Found at Deep-Sea Vents
2008 ◽
Vol 74
(12)
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pp. 3895-3898
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Keyword(s):
Deep Sea
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ABSTRACT Recent evidence suggests that deep-sea vestimentiferan tube worms acquire their endosymbiotic bacteria from the environment each generation; thus, free-living symbionts should exist. Here, free-living tube worm symbiont phylotypes were detected in vent seawater and in biofilms at multiple deep-sea vent habitats by PCR amplification, DNA sequence analysis, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. These findings support environmental transmission as a means of symbiont acquisition for deep-sea tube worms.