The Extent of Algal and Bacterial Endosymbioses in Protozoa1,2

Comparative Analyses of the Symbiotic Associations of the Host Paramecium bursaria with Free-Living and Native Symbiotic Species of Chlorella

Each symbiotic Chlorella variabilis associated with the ciliate Paramecium bursaria is enclosed in a symbiosome called the perialgal vacuole. Various potential symbionts, such as bacteria, yeasts, other algae, and free-living Chlorella spp., can infect P. bursaria. However, the detailed infection process of each of them in algae-free P. bursaria is unknown. Here, we aimed to elucidate the difference of the infection process between the free-living C. sorokiniana strain NIES-2169 and native symbiotic C. variabilis strain 1N. We investigated the fate of ingested algae using algae-free P. bursaria exposed separately to three types of algal inocula: NIES-2169 only, 1N only, or a mixture of NIES-2169 and 1N. We found that (1) only one algal species, preferably the native one, was retained in host cells, indicating a type of host compatibility and (2) the algal localization style beneath the host cell cortex varied between different Chlorella spp. showing various levels of host compatibilities, which was prospectively attributable to the difference in the formation of the perialgal vacuole membrane.

Symbiogenesis is driven through hierarchical reorganization of an ecosystem under closed or semi-closed conditions

Ecosystems generate selective environments and function as sources of various metabolic systems for symbiogenesis. In this study, we have explored how symbiogenesis occurs in the living world, from a holistic perspective, by observing a long-term experimental culture of an ecosystem model (CET microcosm) and using related findings in laboratory and field studies of endosymbiosis between auto- (photo-) and heterotrophic organisms. The results obtained suggest that symbiogenesis can occur in the mature stages of semi-closed ecosystems and lead to a new ecosystem-oriented perspective of symbiogenesis. Symbiogenesis is an aspect of ecosystem evolution in which whole ecosystem dynamics generate selective conditions operating on the component species, favoring symbiotic associations among some of them. The development of symbiotic associations then modifies the organization and material/energy flow structure of the ecosystem, which, in turn, modifies their selective environments.

Autolysis of Chlorella variabilis in Starving Paramecium bursaria Help the Host Cell Survive Against Starvation Stress

The endosymbiosis between Paramecium bursaria and Chlorella spp. is mutualistic. Symbiotic algae localize beneath the host Paramecium cell cortex compete for their attachment sites with preexisting organelle trichocysts. To examine the relationship between P. bursaria trichocysts and their symbiotic algae, algae-bearing or alga-free P. bursaria were starved for several days and the changes in the number of Chlorella sp. and presence or absence of trichocysts were evaluated. We conducted an indirect immunofluorescence microscopy with an anti-trichocyst monoclonal antibody against P. bursaria cells. Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy demonstrated that under starvation and darkness conditions, the immunofluorescence of trichocysts in alga-free P. bursaria decreased much faster than that in the normal algae-bearing P. bursaria. In the latter case, our observations proposed the possibility that the nutrition obtained from symbiotic algal digestion may promote trichocysts synthesis. This algal digestion mechanism may permit host P. bursaria cells to survive for a longer time under starvation condition. To the best of our knowledge, this may be a new benefit that host P. bursaria gain from harboring symbiotic algae.

Divergences in the response to ultraviolet radiation between polar and non-polar ciliated protozoa: UV radiation effects in Euplotes

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation has detrimental effects on marine ecosystems, in particular in the polar regions where stratospheric ozone reduction causes higher levels of solar radiation. We analyzed two polar species of Euplotes, Euplotes focardii and Euplotes nobilii, for the sensitivity to UV radiation in comparison with two akin species from mid-latitude and tropical waters. Results showed that they face UV radiation much more efficiently than the non-polar species by adopting alternative strategies that most likely reflect different times of colonization of the polar waters. While E. focardii, which is endemic to the Antarctic, survives for longer exposed to UV radiation, E. nobilii, which inhabits both the Antarctic and Arctic, recovers faster from UV-induced damage.

The biology of free-living anaerobic ciliates

Anaerobic ciliates are incapable of using oxidative phosphorylation in their energy metabolism and they are more or less sensitive to oxygen. All anaerobic ciliates possess mitochondria-like organelles (with a double outer membrane and often a few cristae) but these do not contain typical mitochondrial enzymes (e.g., cytochromes, cytochrome oxidase). In some species these organelles are capable of fermenting pyruvate into acetate and H2 and they are then referred to as hydrogenosomes. At least six orders of ciliates include anaerobic species. It is concluded that the evolution of anaerobic forms has taken place independently within different taxonomic groups and that hydrogenosomes are modified mitochondria. Many anaerobic ciliates harbour ecto- or endosymbiotic bacteria. Several ciliate species which produce hydrogen as a metabolic waste product harbour endosymbiotic methanogenic bacteria; in some cases this symbiosis represents a mutualistic relationship in which the host controls the life cycle of the symbionts and gains from their presence in terms of growth rate and growth efficiency. Many marine anaerobic ciliates harbour ectosymbiotic bacteria, but the nature of these bacteria and the significance of the association is not yet understood. The present paper reviews what is known about the biology of anaerobic ciliates with special emphasis on free-living forms, including a discussion of their habitats and their role in the microbial communities of anoxic environments.

Symbiotic Chlorella sp. of the ciliate Paramecium bursaria do not prevent acidification and lysosomal fusion of host digestive vacuoles during infection

Each symbiotic Chlorella sp. of the ciliate Paramecium bursaria is enclosed in a perialgal vacuole derived from the host digestive vacuole, and thereby the alga is protected from digestion by lysosomal fusion. Algae-free cells can be reinfected with algae isolated from algae-bearing cells by ingestion into digestive vacuoles. To examine the timing of acidification and lysosomal fusion of the digestive vacuoles and of algal escape from the digestive vacuole, algae-free cells were mixed with isolated algae or yeast cells stained with pH indicator dyes at 25+/-1 degrees C for 1.5 min, washed, chased, and fixed at various time points. Acidification of the vacuoles and digestion of Chlorella sp. began at 0.5 and 2 min after mixing, respectively. All single green Chlorella sp. that had been present in the host cytoplasm before 0.5 h after mixing were digested by 0.5 h. At 1 h after mixing, however, single green algae reappeared in the host cytoplasm, arising from those digestive vacuoles containing both nondigested and partially digested algae, and the percentage of such cells increased to about 40% at 3 h. At 48 h, the single green algae began to multiply by cell division, indicating that these algae had succeeded in establishing endosymbiosis. In contrast to previously published studies, our data show that an alga can successfully escape from the host's digestive vacuole after acidosomal and lysosomal fusion with the vacuole has occurred, in order to produce endosymbiosis.

Evolutionary aspects of whole-genome biology

A decade of access to whole-genome sequences has been increasingly revealing about the informational network relating all living organisms. Although at one point there was concern that extensive horizontal gene transfer might hopelessly muddle phylogenies, it has not proved a severe hindrance. The melding of sequence and structural information is being used to great advantage, and the prospect exists that some of the earliest aspects of life on Earth can be reconstructed, including the invention of biosynthetic and metabolic pathways. Still, some fundamental phylogenetic problems remain, including determining the root--if there is one--of the historical relationship between Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya.

Searching for the common ancestor

In this brief mini-review I address the current controversy surrounding the nature of the last common ancestor of all life on Earth. The pros and cons of the various positions have been hotly debated of late with no sign of the tumult subsiding. As such, I could not possibly do justice to all the varied and opposing views, nor even cite them. Let me just say at the outset that my own views on the subject at hand have been greatly influenced by the writings of T. Cavalier-Smith, W.F. Doolittle, P. Gogarten, R. Gupta, H. Hartman, O. Kandler, E. Koonin, J. Lake, W. Martin, M. Sogin, and C. Woese, inter alia. I hope they will forgive me if my depiction of events does not do full justice to their contributions.

Transmissibility of bacterial endosymbionts between isolates of Acanthamoeba spp

Experimental transmission of two bacterial endosymbionts to symbiont-free isolates of Acanthamoeba spp. was studied to determine specificity of the host-symbiont relationship. Both symbionts originated from amoebic isolates displaying an identical mitochondrial DNA EcoRI fingerprint (group AcUW II). Symbioses were readily established in one amoebic isolate which displayed a homologous mtDNA fingerprint (group AcUW II). Exposure of a heterologous amoebic isolate (group AcUW IV) to the two symbionts resulted in either cell death or encystation without the establishment of symbioses. While symbioses were established with an amoebic isolate from a second heterologous group (AcUWI), a unique membranous sheath appeared and persisted around one of the symbionts which did not exist in the original host. An isolate representing a third heterologous amoebic group (AcUW VI) was variable in its susceptibility with one symbiont unable to infect the host and the other becoming established only after an initial reaction in which trophozoites rounded-up and floated off the substrate. These studies suggest that a specific recognition system exists between particular isolates of Acanthamoeba and their symbionts, and that the appearance of a killer phenotype is related to contact between mismatched though recognized, pairs.

Parasitoids, polydnaviruses and endosymbiosis

Symbiotic associations traditionally have been treated as evolutionary curios rather than as a major source of evolutionary innovation. Recent research on a wide variety of organisms is changing this view and is breaking down the barriers between the traditional categories of parasitism, commensalism and mutualism, to produce a more flexible view of multispecific interactions. An especially abundant, but little discussed, mutualism exists between parasitoid wasps in the superfamily Ichneumonoidea and a novel form of DNA viruses known as polydnaviruses. Mutualisms between viruses and eukaryotes are not often reported, although as many as 100 000 species of organisms may exhibit this unusual association. In this review Jim Whitfield considers what is known about the parasitoid-polydnavirus relationship and how (and from what) it might have arisen.

On plastid symbiosis in Tontonia appendiculariformis (Ciliophora, Oligotrichina)

Many hundreds of isolated plastids, in a good state of preservation in their living host, the planktonic ciliate Tontonia appendiculariformis (Oligotrichina), have been studied by electron microscopy. These distinctive plastids, located at the periphery of the host's body, which do not belong to complete symbiotic algae, are described in detail. All are bounded by three membranes. Although degenerating plastids were observed none were ever seen in division. Their possible origin, the significance of the three plastid membranes, and the degree of symbiosis established are discussed. From their organization, these plastids may have originated from several species of chromophyte algae, such as dinophyceae, Prymnesiophyceae, and Bacillariophyceae or Chrysophyceae. Because of their absence of division and of their possible degeneration, they are probably not integrated genetically. However, they appear to survive for some time and to remain functional. There is evidence that the outermost third plastid membrane arises from the host ciliate. Finally, hypotheses are proposed to explain the incorporation of the plastids into the ciliate, and their possible role in building cortical polysaccharide plates.