Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T22:59:34.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The occurrence of Epulopiscium-like Eubacteria in the intestines of surgeonfish from the US Virgin Islands, western Atlantic Ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2013

J. Norman Grim ,
Donna Nemeth  and
W. Linn Montgomery
J. Norman Grim*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011-5640, USA
Donna Nemeth
Affiliation:
College of Science and Mathematics, Center for Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of the Virgin Islands, St Thomas, VI 00802, US Virgin Islands
W. Linn Montgomery
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011-5640, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: J.N. Grim, Box 5640, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Several morphotypes of the relatively large bacterium, Epulopiscium sp. were collected from the intestines of three species of surgeonfish (genus: Acanthurus) from shallow waters around the island of St Thomas, in the eastern Caribbean Ocean. This was the first comprehensive study of any of these bacteria from the Atlantic Ocean. They were chemically fixed at the University on St Thomas Island, Virgin Islands and sent to the first author (J.N.G.). Each sample was examined under phase-contrast microscopy with a light microscope. Most cells contained two daughter cells that were very phase-bright; hence, were likely true endospores. They varied from very small, at the ends of the cell, to one-third the length of the cell length to overlapping at the centre. A few contained only one daughter cell or endospore. Based on their sizes, shape, and number of daughter cells, they best fit two of the morphotypes described previously.

Keywords

first reportbacterial endosporesdaughter cellsphase-contrast light microscopy
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 6 , 2013 , e79
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Angert, E.R., Clements, K.D. and Pace, N.R. (1993) The largest bacterium. Nature 362, 239–241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Angert, E.R. (2006) Beyond binary fission: some bacteria reproduce by alternative means. Some gram-positive bacteria symbionts form multiple offspring intracellularly in a process resembling endospore formation. Microbe 1, 127–131.Google Scholar
Beebe, W. and Van-Tee, J. (1928) The fishes of Port-au-Prince Bay, Haiti, with summary of the known species of marine fish of the island of Haiti and Santo Domingo. Zoologica 10, 1–279.Google Scholar
Bernal, M.A. and Rocha, L.A. (2011) Acanthurus tractus Poey, 1860, a valid western Atlantic species of surgeonfish (Teleostei, Acanthuridae), distinct from Acanthurus bahianus Castelnau, 1855. Zootaxa 2905, 63–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bresler, V.W., Montgomery, W.L., Fishelson, L. and Pollak, P.E. (1998) Gigantism in a bacterium, Epulopiscium fishelsoni, correlates with complex patterns in arrangement, quantity, and segregation of DNA. Journal of Bacteriology 180, 5601–5611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clements, K.D., Sutton, D.C. and Choat, J.H. (1989) Occurrence and characteristics of unusual protistan symbionts from surgeonfishes (Acanthuridae) of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Marine Biology 102, 403–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clements, K.D. and Bullivant, S. (1991) An unusual symbiont from the gut of surgeonfishes may be the largest known prokaryote. Journal of Bacteriology 173, 5359–5362.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fishelson, L., Montgomery, W.L. and Myrberg, A.A. Jr (1985) A unique symbiosis in the gut of tropical herbivorous surgeonfish. (Acanthuridae: Teleostei) from the Red Sea. Science 229, 49–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flint, J.F. (2006) Molecular methods to investigate symbiotic systems. PhD dissertation. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.Google Scholar
Flint, J.F., Drzymalski, D., Montgomery, W.L., Southam, G. and Angert, E.R. (2005) Nocturnal production of endospores in natural populations of Epulopiscium-like surgeonfish symbionts. Journal of Bacteriology 187, 7460–7470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grim, J.N., Clements, K.D. and Byfield, T. (2002) New species of Balantidium and Paracichlidotherus (Ciliophora) inhabiting the intestines of four surgeonfish species from the Tuvalu Islands, Pacific Ocean. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 49, 146–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kunstyr, I.R., Schiel, F.J., Kaup, G., Uhr, G., and Kirchhoff, H. (1988) Giant gram-negative noncultivable endospore-forming bacteria in rodent intestines. Naturwissenschaften 75, 525–527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Longley, W.H., Schmitt, W.L. and Taylor, W.R. (1925) Observations upon the food of certain Tortugas fishes. Annual Report of the Tortugas Laboratory, Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC, Yearbook 24, 230–232.Google Scholar
Montgomery, W.L. and Pollak, P.E. (1988) Epulopiscium fishelsoni n. g., n. sp., a protist of uncertain taxonomic affinities from the gut of an herbivorous reef fish. Journal of Protozoology 35, 565–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, W.L., Myrberg, A.A. and Fishelson, L. (1989) Feeding ecology of surgeonfishes (Acanthuridae) in the northern Red Sea, with particular reference to Acanthurus nigrofuscus (Forsskal). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 132, 179–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randall, J.E. (2002) Surgeonfishes of Hawai'i and the world. Hawai'i: Mutual Publishing and the Bishop Museum Press, 125 pp.Google Scholar
Robinow, C. and Angert, E.R. (1998) Nucleoids and coated vesicles of ‘Epulopiscium’ spp. Archives of Microbiology 170, 227–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ward, R.J., Clements, K.D., Choat, J.H. and Angert, E.R. (2009) Cytology of terminally differentiated Epulopiscium mother cells. DNA and Cell Biology 28, 57–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed