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Can symbiosis between bacteria and marine organisms adapt to warmer oceans?
Symbiotic interactions between marine bacteria and eukaryotic organisms are essential to marine ecology. Whether these symbioses will be able to adapt to rising ocean temperatures induced by climate change is an important open question. With the support of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SymFlux project aims to address this, leveraging a unique squid husbandry facility to study the symbiosis between the squid Sepiola affinis and its symbionts Vibrio fischeri and Vibrio logei. The project will study colonisation of S. affinis, how temperature affects it, any molecular adaptations of the bacteria to temperature fluctuations that affect their growth and whether certain molecules promote bacterial temperature resilience.
Beneficial microbes are essential for many animals and mutualistic interactions must be able to withstand environmental changes such as temperature fluctuations. However, with changing ocean temperatures induced by climate change, it is unclear whether symbioses will be able to adapt, leaving marine organisms at risk. Therefore, this proposal will characterize how bacterial symbionts respond to changing temperatures and identify whether microbes can increase symbiotic resiliency to temperature stress. To pursue this topic, the symbiosis between the squid Sepiola affinis and its symbionts (V. fischeri and V. logei) will be used. The project uses a unique squid husbandry facility to pursue three main objectives. The first objective will characterize initial and persistent colonization in the S. affinis light organ. Using confocal microscopy and genetic labelling, strain behaviors during colonization will be described. The second objective will examine how temperature affects colonization. The third objective will screen Vibrio spp. for growth under temperature fluctuations. RNA sequencing and metabolomics will be used to identify molecular mechanisms underlying resilience to temperature fluctuations. Finally, genetic modification and both in-vitro and in-vivo growth assays will test whether molecular candidates promote temperature resilience. The project will have a two-way transfer of knowledge, with the researcher providing knowledge of Vibrio spp. and bacterial genetics with the host institution providing bioinformatics and small molecule analysis. The SymFlux project will position S. affinis as a model for symbiosis research in Europe as well as contribute knowledge of how symbioses can adapt to climate change. |
