Have spiders ‘farm’ methan-eating bacteria on their bodies

Spider-like beings living near methane-seat on the seabed appear to grow and consume microbial species on their bodies that live on the energy-rich gas. This extends the set of organizations known to rely on symbiotic relationships with microbes to live in the other worldwide.

Shana Goffredi at Western College in California and her colleagues collects seaquakes – marine arthropods named after their resemblance to Arachnids – lives near three different methane -saives in the Pacific. They found three previously unknown species from the spider genus of the sea Sericosura This one appeals only to being abundant near these gas seeping.

Other types of sea spiders, which donation live near Siver, eat widely other reverse. But the researchers found that the new sea spiders seem to get most of their nutrition by eating a significant set of bacterial species that live on their bodies. These bacteria reap energy by metabolizing methane and methanol coming from the Siveren, energy that otherwise tells them that they are inaccessible to the sea spiders.

The researchers found that the bacteria were limited to the spiders’ exoskeletons such as a “microbial fur coat” that grew in what Goffredi describes as “volcanic -like” clusters. The layers of bacterial growth also had markings such as lawnmower tracks, where the spiders may have given them using hard “lips” and three small teeth.

To confirm that the sea spiders really ate the bacteria, the researchers also used a radioactive labeling technique to track how the carbon in methane was consumed by the sea peaks in the laboratory. “We saw that methane goes into the microbes that are on the surface of the spiders, and then we saw that the carbon molecule is moving into the tissue of the spider,” says Goffredi.

The researchers do not think the sea spiders just eat with happens to be growing on their exoskeletons. Becuse the species that live on the exoskelets are different from what is generally found in the environment, it suggests that a kind of selection process is in games, says Goffredi. “The spiders grow and cultivate a very special type of community.”

Hav spiders would not be the first organizations to breed microbes to access chemical energy. “Every time we see [at ecosystems around methane seeps]We find this more and more, ”says Erik Cordes at Temple University in Pennsylvania. He worked with Goffredi on a previous project that found a similar symbiosis in tube worms. It’s pretty amazing,” he says.

Wires point out that the bacteria are also in charge of winning by riding on the ocean spiders. Not unlike cows on a ranch, they get protection and access to better grasslands. For example, if a methane -siv switches to another part of the seabed, the sea -tips could move the bacteria to the new source. “Have the spiders keep them in the perfect habitat,” he says.