Direct evidence for maternal inheritance of bacterial symbionts in small deep-sea clams (Bivalvia: Vesicomyidae)

Bacterial symbiont transmission is a key step in the renewal of the symbiotic interaction at each host generation, and different modes of transmission can be distinguished. Vesicomyidae are chemosynthetic bivalves from reducing habitats that rely on symbiosis with sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, in which two studies suggesting vertical transmission of symbionts have been published, both limited by the imaging techniques used. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization and transmission electron microscopy, we demonstrate that bacterial symbionts of Isorropodon bigoti, a gonochoristic Vesicomyidae from the Guiness cold seep site, occur intracellularly within female gametes at all stages of gametogenesis from germ cells to mature oocytes and in early postlarval stage. Symbionts are completely absent from the male gonad and gametes. This study confirms the transovarial transmission of symbionts in Vesicomyidae and extends it to the smaller species for which no data were previously available.