Search for: All records

1 

Protists are a diverse group of typically single cell eukaryotes. Bacteria and archaea that form long-term symbiotic relationships with protists may evolve in additional ways than those in relationships with multicellular eukaryotes such as plants, animals, or fungi. 

Here we give names to three new species of Paraburkholderia that can remain in symbiosis indefinitely in the spores of a soil dwelling eukaryote, Dictyostelium discoideum . The new species P. agricolaris sp. nov. , P. hayleyella sp. nov. , and P. bonniea sp. nov . are widespread across the eastern USA and were isolated as internal symbionts of wild-collected D. discoideum . We describe these sp. nov. using several approaches. Evidence that they are each a distinct new species comes from their phylogenetic position, average nucleotide identity, genome-genome distance, carbon usage, reduced length, cooler optimal growth temperature, metabolic tests, and their previously described ability to invade D. discoideum amoebae and form a symbiotic relationship . All three of these new species facilitate the prolonged carriage of food bacteria by D. discoideum, though they themselves are not food. Further studies of the interactions of these three new species with D. discoideum should be fruitful for understanding the ecology and evolution of symbioses. 

Abstract When multiple strains of microbes form social groups, such as the multicellular fruiting bodies ofDictyostelium discoideum, conflict can arise regarding cell fate. Both fixed and plastic differences among strains can contribute to cell fate, and plastic responses may be particularly important if social environments frequently change. We used RNA‐sequencing and photographic time series analysis to detect possible conflict‐induced plastic differences between wildD.discoideumaggregates formed by single strains compared with mixed pairs of strains (chimeras). We found one hundred and two differentially expressed genes that were enriched for biological processes including cytoskeleton organization and cyclic AMP response (up‐regulated in chimeras), and DNA replication and cell cycle (down‐regulated in chimeras). In addition, our data indicate that in reference to a time series of multicellular development in the laboratory strain AX4, chimeras may be slightly behind clonal aggregates in their development. Finally, phenotypic analysis supported slower splitting of aggregates and a nonsignificant trend for larger group sizes in chimeras. The transcriptomic comparison and phenotypic analyses support discoordination among aggregate group members due to social conflict. These results are consistent with previously observed factors that affect cell fate decision inD.discoideumand provide evidence for plasticity in cAMP signaling and phenotypic coordination during development in response to social conflict inD.discoideumand similar microbial social groups.