Publication Date:
2014-01-11
Description:
Many benthic marine animal populations are established and maintained by free-swimming larvae that recognize cues from surface-bound bacteria to settle and metamorphose. Larvae of the tubeworm Hydroides elegans, an important biofouling agent, require contact with surface-bound bacteria to undergo metamorphosis; however, the mechanisms that underpin this microbially mediated developmental transition have been enigmatic. Here, we show that a marine bacterium, Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea, produces arrays of phage tail-like structures that trigger metamorphosis of H. elegans. These arrays comprise about 100 contractile structures with outward-facing baseplates, linked by tail fibers and a dynamic hexagonal net. Not only do these arrays suggest a novel form of bacterium-animal interaction, they provide an entry point to understanding how marine biofilms can trigger animal development.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Shikuma, Nicholas J -- Pilhofer, Martin -- Weiss, Gregor L -- Hadfield, Michael G -- Jensen, Grant J -- Newman, Dianne K -- GM094800B/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Jan 31;343(6170):529-33. doi: 10.1126/science.1246794. Epub 2014 Jan 9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24407482" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Aquatic Organisms/growth & development/microbiology
;
Bacteriocins/genetics/*metabolism
;
Bacteriophages/ultrastructure
;
*Biofilms
;
Genes, Bacterial/physiology
;
Larva/growth & development/microbiology
;
*Metamorphosis, Biological
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Open Reading Frames
;
Polychaeta/*growth & development/*microbiology
;
Pseudoalteromonas/genetics/*physiology/*virology
;
Viral Tail Proteins/genetics/*physiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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