Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 30 September 1983:
Vol. 221. no. 4618, pp. 1401 - 1403
DOI: 10.1126/science.221.4618.1401
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

A Cellulolytic Nitrogen-Fixing Bacterium Cultured from the Gland of Deshayes in Shipworms (Bivalvia: Teredinidae)

JOHN B. WATERBURY 1, C. BRADFORD CALLOWAY 2, and RUTH D. TURNER 2

1 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
2 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

A novel bacterium has been isolated in pure culture from the gland of Deshayes in six species of teredinid bivalves. It is the first bacterium known to both digest cellulose and fix nitrogen, and it is a participant in a unique symbiotic relation with shipworms that may explain how teredinids are able to use wood as their principal food source.

Submitted on March 11, 1983
Revised on July 11, 1983


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Quantitative Imaging of Nitrogen Fixation by Individual Bacteria Within Animal Cells.
C. P. Lechene, Y. Luyten, G. McMahon, and D. L. Distel (2007)
Science 317, 1563-1566
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Extensive Variation in Intracellular Symbiont Community Composition among Members of a Single Population of the Wood-Boring Bivalve Lyrodus pedicellatus (Bivalvia: Teredinidae).
Y. A. Luyten, J. R. Thompson, W. Morrill, M. F. Polz, and D. L. Distel (2006)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 72, 412-417
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Coexistence of Multiple Proteobacterial Endosymbionts in the Gills of the Wood-Boring Bivalve Lyrodus pedicellatus (Bivalvia: Teredinidae).
D. L. Distel, D. J. Beaudoin, and W. Morrill (2002)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 68, 6292-6299
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Bacterial Symbiont Transmission in the Wood-Boring Shipworm Bankia setacea (Bivalvia: Teredinidae).
A. R. Sipe, A. E. Wilbur, and S. C. Cary (2000)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 66, 1685-1691
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Functional anatomy of the digestive system of Neoteredo reynei (Bartsch, 1920) and Psiloteredo healdi (Bartsch, 1931) (Bivalvia: Teredinidae).
S. G. B. C. Lopes, O. Domaneschi, D. T. De Moraes, M. Morita, and G. D. L. C. Meserani (2000)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 177, 257-271
   Abstract »    PDF »
Genetic Diversity of the Biofilm Covering Montacuta ferruginosa (Mollusca, Bivalvia) as Evaluated by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis Analysis and Cloning of PCR-Amplified Gene Fragments Coding for 16S rRNA.
D. C. Gillan, A. G. C. L. Speksnijder, G. Zwart, and C. De Ridder (1998)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 64, 3464-3472
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Nitrogen Fixation by Anaerobic Cellulolytic Bacteria.
S. B. Leschine, K. Holwell, and E. Canale-Parola (1988)
Science 242, 1157-1159
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)