Metabolomics and Proteomics of Capitella teleta Metabolizing Fluoranthene in Marine Sediments
EMSL Project ID
51313
Abstract
Capitella teleta is a marine sediment-feeding polychaete known to degrade various polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and reported to possess genes involved in PAH transformation, such as those in the P450 cytochrome superfamily. However, the mechanism by which worms degrade PAH is unclear as is the extent to which its gut microbiome plays a role. To elucidate the roles of host and microbiota in PAH metabolism, we investigated microbial community changes in C. teleta and sediment during fluoranthene biodegradation in marine sediment microcosms in which the microbiomes of worms and sediment were manipulated by antibiotic treatment and autoclaving, respectively. After 2 weeks of microcosm incubation, manipulated microbiomes had recovered in antibiotic-treated worms and autoclaved sediment through bidirectional transfer of microbiota between worms and sediment, and there was no significant difference in fluoranthene degradation between manipulated and non-manipulated microbiota treatments. Moreover, no evidence of fluoranthene degradation by gut microbes of C. teleta was found, and we were unable to isolate fluoranthene-degrading bacterial strains from polychaete guts. Our results suggest that C. teleta itself is primarily responsible for the degradation of fluoranthene in ingested sediment. Nevertheless, gut microbes appear to be required for survival and growth of C. teleta. We hypothesize that C. teleta’s core microbiome, which includes members of Propionibacterium as the most abundant genus, helps worms to obtain key nutrients (e.g., vitamin B12) from its refractory sediment diet. However, at this time we lack evidence of what nutrients pass from host to microbe and vice versa. This is the basis of this request, to do proteomics and metabolmics – too better understand nutrient flow between host and microbiota. This information will be very useful for this and other systems involving host-microbe interactions leading to environmental remediation.
Project Details
Project type
Limited Scope
Start Date
2020-08-01
End Date
2020-10-01
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator