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Science 1 April 1988:
Vol. 240. no. 4848, pp. 78 - 80
DOI: 10.1126/science.240.4848.78
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Articles

Mussel Growth Supported by Methane as Sole Carbon and Energy Source

S. CRAIG CARY 1, CHARLES R. FISHER 1, and HORST FELBECK 2

1 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Marine Biology Research Division, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093.
2 Marine Science Institute and Department of Biological Science, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.

Symbioses between chemoautotrophic bacteria and several specialized marine invertebrates are well documented. However, none of these symbioses have been demonstrated to provide sufficient energy and carbon to the host to enable it to grow. Growth rates of seep mussels collected from hydrocarbon seeps off the coast of Louisiana were measured in a controlled environment where methane was the sole carbon and energy source. The growth rates increased to a maximum of 17.2 micrometers per day in response to methane and approached zero in the absence of methane. These mussels contain methanotrophic symbiotic bacteria in their gills, which suggests that these bacteria provide their hosts with a net carbon flux originating from methane.

Submitted on October 16, 1987
Accepted on February 4, 1988


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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