scs diatom

Bacteria attached to a diatom host cell are thought to operate as potential symbionts, functioning as mutualistic, parasitic, or commensal epibionts. This study investigates if similar relationships can be found at the level of the individual diatom host cell by analyzing the metagenomes of six representative Thalassiosira host cells with dissimilar associated bacteria. Diatoms were collected from the deep chlorophyll maximum in the oligotrophic waters of Station ALOHA (22° 45'N, 158° 00'W), isolated using fluorescently activated cell sorting, and DNA amplified using multiple displacement amplification. Preliminary analysis of the 16S rDNA of 32 host cells found that the composition of bacterial associations could be divided into three distinct groups; six cells from the two most common groupings were selected for further analysis. This initial metagenomic analysis explores nutrient pathways, antibiotic production, quorum sensing, motility, and other genes that may be essential to the diatom-bacterial symbiotic interaction. This work surveys the potential genetic contribution of bacteria, diatoms, as well as community-level interactions that determine the health of the diatom host cell and their bacterial consortia.