Diversity, specificity and evolutionary history of marine invertebrate symbioses and functions of the sulfur-oxidizing symbionts

Many marine invertebrates have established symbioses with chemosynthetic bacteria that metabolize reduced sulfur compounds and provide nutrition to their host. Two key questions in the field of symbiosis are: (1) How specific and evolutionarily stable are these symbioses? Chapters II, III and IV of this thesis contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of this question by investigating the diversity, specificity and evolutionary history of three sulfur-oxidizing symbioses: deep-sea vestimentiferan tubeworm endosymbioses, shallow water gutless phallodriline oligochaete endo- and stilbonematine nematode ectosymbioses. The studies emphasize the power of molecular analyses to uncover "hidden" symbiont diversity and highlight the remarkably stable and specific stilbonematine ectosymbioses. (2) What are the benefits for the symbiotic partners? Chapter V strengthens the hypothesis of stilbonematine ectosymbionts' nutritional role for their host and the genomic study in Chapter VI discusses potential additional functions of the ectosymbionts for their nematode host.