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A colorful visualization of mouthpart of vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata.

A colorful visualization of mouthpart of vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata.
A colorful visualization of mouthpart of vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata.
A colorful visualization of mouthpart of vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata.
A colorful visualization of mouthpart of vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata.
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Petersen, Jill
A colorful visualization of mouthpart of vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata.
Still Image
04/18/2006
Rexoculata_SnakePit_FISH1.jpg
Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization or FISH was used to visualize different microbes attached to the mouthparts of the hydrothermal vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata. In FISH, short stretches of nucleic acids labeled with different fluorochromes bind to a specific region of the nucleic acid of the microbes in question, allowing for their identification and localization. The shrimp Rimicaris exoculata harbors a specialized epibiotic bacterial community in its enlarged gill chamber. WHOI microbial ecologist Stefan Sievert and colleagues have now further elucidated the functional roles of the epibionts. Highly specific epibiotic associations between bacteria and invertebrates such as these are a very common phenomenon at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, contributing to overall biomass production at these sites.
Image of The Day caption:
How do shrimp make a living at hydrothermal vents? They have help from a variety of microbes. This image shows two kinds of bacteria attached to a hair-like structure called a seta on the mouth appendages of the shrimp Rimicaris exoculata. The ring-shaped seta (seen here in cross-section) appears blue. Short, thin Gammaproteobacteria appear red, and the longer, stouter Epsilonproteobacteria appear green. WHOI microbial ecologist Stefan Sievert and colleagues used FISH, or Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization, to localize and identify the microbes. In FISH, short stretches of nucleic acids tagged with different fluorescent labels bind to the DNA of specific microbes. The researchers recently elucidated how these bacteria convert energy from chemicals in the hydrothermal fluid into biomass that the shrimp can use as an energy source.
Image by Jill Petersen, Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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