TY - JOUR

T1 - Diversity and environmental distribution of the cosmopolitan endosymbiont “Candidatus Megaira”

AU - Lanzoni, Olivia

AU - Sabaneyeva, E.

AU - Modeo, Letizia

AU - Castelli, Michele

AU - Lebedeva, N.

AU - Verni, Franco

AU - Schrallhammer, Martina

AU - Potekhin, A.

AU - Petroni, Giulio

N1 - статья в электронном журнале, открытый доступ

PY - 2019/2/4

Y1 - 2019/2/4

N2 - Members of the order Rickettsiales are often found in association with ciliated protists. An interesting case is the bacterial endosymbiont “Candidatus Megaira”, which is phylogenetically closely related to the pathogen Rickettsia. “Candidatus Megaira” was first described as an intracellular bacterium in several ciliate species. Since then it has been found in association with diverse evolutionary distantly-related hosts, among them other unicellular eukaryotes, and also algae, and metazoa, such as cnidarians. We provide the characterization of several new strains of the type species “Candidatus Megaira polyxenophila”, and the multidisciplinary description of a novel species, “Candidatus Megaira venefica”, presenting peculiar features, which highlight the diversity and variability of these widespread bacterial endosymbionts. Screening of the 16S rRNA gene short amplicon database and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene hypervariable regions revealed the presence of further hidden lineages, and provided hints on the possibility that these bacteria may be horizontally transmitted among aquatic protists and metazoa. The phylogenetic reconstruction supports the existence of at least five different separate species-level clades of “Candidatus Megaira”, and we designed a set of specific probes allowing easy recognition of the four major clades of the genus.

AB - Members of the order Rickettsiales are often found in association with ciliated protists. An interesting case is the bacterial endosymbiont “Candidatus Megaira”, which is phylogenetically closely related to the pathogen Rickettsia. “Candidatus Megaira” was first described as an intracellular bacterium in several ciliate species. Since then it has been found in association with diverse evolutionary distantly-related hosts, among them other unicellular eukaryotes, and also algae, and metazoa, such as cnidarians. We provide the characterization of several new strains of the type species “Candidatus Megaira polyxenophila”, and the multidisciplinary description of a novel species, “Candidatus Megaira venefica”, presenting peculiar features, which highlight the diversity and variability of these widespread bacterial endosymbionts. Screening of the 16S rRNA gene short amplicon database and phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene hypervariable regions revealed the presence of further hidden lineages, and provided hints on the possibility that these bacteria may be horizontally transmitted among aquatic protists and metazoa. The phylogenetic reconstruction supports the existence of at least five different separate species-level clades of “Candidatus Megaira”, and we designed a set of specific probes allowing easy recognition of the four major clades of the genus.

KW - эндосимбионты

KW - риккетсии

KW - ген 16SрРНК

KW - RICKETTSIAL ENDOSYMBIONT

KW - BACTERIAL MICROBIOTA

KW - PARAMECIUM-BURSARIA

KW - CILIOPHORA

KW - ULTRASTRUCTURE

KW - HOST

KW - COMMUNITY

KW - INFERENCE

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061024031&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/diversity-environmental-distribution-cosmopolitan-endosymbiont-candidatus-megaira

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-37629-w

DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-37629-w

M3 - Article

VL - 9

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

SN - 2045-2322

IS - 1

M1 - 1179

ER -