Intracellular Oceanospirillales inhabit the gills of the hydrothermal vent snail Alviniconcha with chemosynthetic, gamma-Proteobacterial symbionts

Associations between bacteria from the -Proteobacterial order Oceanospirillales and marine invertebrates are quite common. Members of the Oceanospirillales exhibit a diversity of interactions with their various hosts, ranging from the catabolism of complex compounds that benefit host growth to attacking and bursting host nuclei. Here, we describe the association between a novel Oceanospirillales phylotype and the hydrothermal vent snail Alviniconcha. Alviniconcha typically harbour chemoautotrophic - or epsilon-Proteobacterial symbionts inside their gill cells. Via fluorescence in situ hybridization and transmission electron microscopy, we observed an Oceanospirillales phylotype (named AOP for AlviniconchaOceanospirillales phylotype') in membrane-bound vacuoles that were separate from the known - or epsilon-Proteobacterial symbionts. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, we surveyed 181 Alviniconcha hosting -Proteobacterial symbionts and 102 hosting epsilon-Proteobacterial symbionts, and found that the population size of AOP was always minor relative to the canonical symbionts (median 0.53% of the total quantified 16S rRNA genes). Additionally, we detected AOP more frequently in Alviniconcha hosting -Proteobacterial symbionts than in those hosting epsilon-Proteobacterial symbionts (96% and 5% of individuals respectively). The high incidence of AOP in -Proteobacteria hosting Alviniconcha implies that it could play a significant ecological role either as a host parasite or as an additional symbiont with unknown physiological capacities.