Editor's Summary
26 October 2006
Symbiosis: doing without
Olavius algarvensis is a marine oligochaete worm found in shallow-water sands off the Mediterranean island of Elba. Remarkably, it lacks not only mouth, stomach and gut, but also nephridia, kidney-like organs. The loss of a digestive system occurs in other animals, but these are the only hosts to have reduced their excretory system in adapting to a symbiosis. Now the genetic makeup of the community of symbiotic bacteria living under the skin of these worms has been determined. Metagenomic analysis reveals how so many essential host tasks have been outsourced to the symbionts.
News and Views: Genomics: Blueprints for partnerships
Gutless marine worms harness the resources of a team of bacteria in lieu of a digestive or excretory system. A genome-sequence analysis now defines the roles of the microbes.
David A. Stahl & Seana K. Davidson
doi:10.1038/nature05208
Article: Symbiosis insights through metagenomic analysis of a microbial consortium
Tanja Woyke, Hanno Teeling, Natalia N. Ivanova, Marcel Huntemann, Michael Richter, Frank Oliver Gloeckner, Dario Boffelli, Iain J. Anderson, Kerrie W. Barry, Harris J. Shapiro, Ernest Szeto, Nikos C. Kyrpides, Marc Mussmann, Rudolf Amann, Claudia Bergin, Caroline Ruehland, Edward M. Rubin & Nicole Dubilier
doi:10.1038/nature05192
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (602K) | Supplementary information
