Resilience of the Symbiosis Between Vibrio fischeri and Euprymna scolopes
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Cook, Rachel
- Area of Honors:
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Wendy Hanna-Rose, Thesis Honors Advisor
Timothy Iwao Miyashiro, Thesis Supervisor - Keywords:
- Symbiosis
Transgenerational effect
Diet
Reproduction
Euprymna scolopes
Vibrio fischeri - Abstract:
- The health of an animal is influenced by the presence of symbiotic bacteria, which perform a certain task that contributes toward the survival of the animal. One of the main determinants of bacterial colonization is the physiology of the animal host, as its body must contain an environment that is accessible to and supportive of the growth of bacterial symbionts. The environmental conditions experienced by an animal before or at reproductive age can lead to physiological abnormalities in its offspring. Though such transgenerational effects have been identified, the impact they have on an animal’s ability to establish and maintain symbioses with bacterial symbionts remains unknown, yet, essential to understanding the impact of environmental stressors on the future fitness of a species. These investigations are pursued through studies involving the symbiosis between the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Euprymna scolopes and the bioluminescent marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri because E. scolopes contain an environment that is physiologically selective for colonization by V. fischeri and symbiosis establishment can be measured by bioluminescence production of a squid. The main goal of this work is to identify the effect of environmental stress experienced by E. scolopes on the ability of subsequent generations of offspring to establish and maintain symbiosis with V. fischeri. This work introduces dietary restriction as a form of environmental stress and evaluates the consequences on E. scolopes health, E. scolopes reproductive activity, offspring physiology, and offspring symbioses. This work demonstrates that E. scolopes faced with dietary restriction experience health decline and reduced reproductive activity, but still produce physiologically healthy offspring capable of establishing symbiosis with V. fischeri.