Microbial Genome Sequencing: The Complete Genome Sequence of Teredinibacter Turnerae T7902T (g-proteobacterium), The Cultivable Intracellular Endosymbiont of Wood-Boring Marine Mo

Ocean Genome Legacy, Ipswich MA

Investigators

Abstract

While most infectious bacteria are considered to be harmful (pathogenic), some may be beneficial or even essential for host survival (symbiotic). Such is the case with Teredinibacter turnerae, a symbiotic bacterium that infects a specialized organ in the gills of marine shipworms. Shipworms are members of a widespread and highly destructive family of worm-like, wood boring clams, and are the only marine animals known that survive and grow with wood as their sole food source. As a result of this unusual diet, shipworms cause an estimated one billion dollars in damage to ships, fishing equipment and marine structures annually but also provide the principle means by which driftwood (a navigational hazard) is degraded and its components are returned to the food web. The symbiont examined here, T. turnerae, is essential to shipworm survival, providing enzymes needed to degrade wood to supplement their nitrogen-poor diet. The objective of the proposed research is to sequence the complete genome of the symbiont T. turnerae. This will provide important insights into the genetic differences that distinguish these beneficial infectious agents from pathogens and non-infectious bacteria and will improve understanding of the ways in which these bacteria (and similar human and animal pathogens) have evolved to evade the host immune system and to accommodate to the intracellular environment. This sequence will also reveal the complete suite of hydrolytic enzymes used by T. turnerae to degrade plant polysaccharides, some of which may have commercial value in manufacture of biofuels from agricultural and domestic waste, in laundry detergents, and in processing of foods and textiles. Finally, because shipworms cannot survive without their symbionts, knowledge of the genes involved in symbiotic infection may facilitate efforts to control shipworm proliferation and the economic damage they cause.