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Structural and ultrastructural analysis of the gills in the bacterial-bearing species Thyasira falklandica (Bivalvia, Mollusca)

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Abstract

In this study, the cellular organization of the gill that harbors symbiotic bacteria is described in the thyasirid Thyasira falklandica collected from South Shetlands in Antarctic. Sections of the gills revealed that T. falklandica belongs to the gill type 3, as described by Dufour (Biol Bull, 208:200–212, 2005), with an elongated lateral zone along the frontal-abfrontal axis of the gill filaments. The ciliated and intermediary zones looked similar to those described in symbionts-bearing bivalves. The lateral zone is more complex in T. falklandica than in other Thyasiridae already described. Such a zone is composed of four different cell types. Bacteriocytes are abundant in the frontal and abfrontal positions, while the middle part of the lateral zone is occupied mostly by numerous granule cells devoid of bacteria. All along the lateral zone, TEM and SEM observations show some ciliated cells, which are regularly interspersed between bacteriocytes and/or granule cells. Such cells, according to the long double ciliary roots of their cilia, should have a sensory function. Intercalary cells, which have never been observed between bacteriocytes, are restricted to the middle part of the lateral zone where their expansions overlap the adjacent granule cells. Bacterial symbionts occur only extracellularly among long microvilli differentiated by the bacteriocytes. They are abundant, usually spherical in shape (around 0.7 μm length), and covered by the glycocalix from bacteriocyte microvilli. According to TEM views, the empty vesicles located in the periplasmic space should be sulfur storage, as known for other sulfur-oxidizing symbionts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was carried out within the Brazilian Antarctic Programme (PROANTAR) with financial and logistic support provided by the CNPq, SECIRM, the Brazilian Navy and Brazilian Air Force; it was also supported by scholarships of FAPESP and of “Pós-Graduação, Área Zoologia, IBUSP”. Our thanks are due to E. Mattos, W. Caldeira and M. V. Cruz (IBUSP), who provided assistance in the techniques of microscopy, and Dr. J. R. M. C. da Silva (USP) for their personal engagements and encouragement in field and laboratory studies.

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  1. Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Caixa Postal 11461, CEP 05422-970, São Paulo, SP, Brasil

    Flávio Dias Passos & Georgeana de Lima Curi Meserani

  2. UMR 7138 Systématique-Adaptation-Evolution, équipe Symbiose, UFR des Sciences Exactes et Naturelles, Laboratoire de Biologie marine, B.P. 592, 97159 Pointe-à-Pitre Cedex, Guadeloupe, France

    Olivier Gros

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  1. Flávio Dias Passos
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  2. Georgeana de Lima Curi Meserani
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  3. Olivier Gros
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Correspondence to Olivier Gros.

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Passos, F.D., de Lima Curi Meserani, G. & Gros, O. Structural and ultrastructural analysis of the gills in the bacterial-bearing species Thyasira falklandica (Bivalvia, Mollusca). Zoomorphology 126, 153–162 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-007-0034-4

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