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Virus-like particles in bacteria symbiotic in bivalve gills

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Eve C. Southward
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Unit, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL PB
A. J. Southward
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Unit, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL PB

Extract

Thyasira gouldi, an arctic bivalve mollusc of the family Thyasiridae, has symbiotic, probably chemoautotrophic, bacteria living in its gills. In specimens collected from Loch Etive in Scotland in 1989, after the local population had undergone an unexplained decline, the gill bacteria contained numerous virus-like particles 60 nm in diameter. The bacteria are not lysed by the virus, and the particles are not present outside the bacteria except in phagocytic vacuoles of the gill cells where the bacteria have been digested, leaving the virus particles unchanged. Similar particles have been discovered in bacterial symbionts of Thyasira flexuosa, but in much smaller numbers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1991

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