Hidden Deep Within a Cave – Unique New Bacteria Species Discovered

 


Scientists in Japan have found a type of bacteria in a cave that exhibits multicellular behavior and a unique, two-phase life cycle.


A limestone cave wall that is periodically submerged by an underground river was the source of the isolated bacterium, HS-3. 



HS-3 goes through two distinct life stages: it self-organizes into a layer-structured colony with characteristics resembling liquid crystals when placed on a solid surface. As the HS-3 colony matures, it forms a semi-closed sphere with clusters of short, rod-shaped "daughter" cells that release when they come into contact with water. 


K O U H E I M I Z U N O, a professor at the National Institute of Technology (KOS EN) in Tokyo, Japan, is the corresponding author. "One of the greatest mysteries of life on Earth is the emergence of multicellularity". The point is that while multicellularity's superior function and adaptability are well-known, its origins are virtually unknown. Function and adaptability that have been established are not always the driving forces behind their formation. The conflict that must have existed in the early stages of the evolutionary transition between the "benefits of individuals" and the "benefit of the group" is an intriguing aspect of multicellularity. Other than theoretical models, we do not have a good model to study multicellularity


In Kyushu, Japan, HS-3 was isolated by dripping water on a limestone cave wall. The cells initially reproduced, but due to cell elongation, the colony became monolithic


The colony then grew to include additional layers. Domains with the shape of vortex were formed as the internal filamentous cells buckled. The liquid crystal-like arrangement of these domains and the transparency of HS-3 colonies on agar can be explained. The colony began to swell three-dimensionally after two days, forming a semi-closed sphere that housed cells thanks to internal cell reproduction. After the fifth day, the colony's internal cells were squeezed out, causing a chain reaction in adjacent colonies and suggesting multicellular control. 


As the cavern wall examining the site of HS-3 was routinely liable to streaming water in the cavern, the group lowered the experienced semicircle settlements in water. They demonstrated that the two distinct phases of HS-3's life cycle are reversible and may have arisen as a result of the changing conditions inside the cave by plating these daughter cells on fresh agar and discovering that the cells were able to reproduce the original filamentous structure. 


M I Z U N O asserts, "We needed ten years to be sure that this wasn't just a mutation and that it wasn't a contamination of two different species". To begin, we developed our own methods and used a series of microscopic observations to document the entire process, from a single cell to a colony. After that, we discovered that the morphological changes that occur in colonies and cells could be reversed and controlled. We concluded from those data that HS-3 possesses "multicellularity"


The first stage of HS-3's life cycle suggests a previously unknown role for the liquid crystal-like organization in the development of multicellularity. According to co-corresponding author M O R I K A W A, a professor in the Division of Biomedical Science at the University of T S U K U B A, Japan, "The existence of the second life stage implicates the involvement of the dynamic water environment in the emergence of HS-3's multicellularity". 


The multicellular behavior of this new species is in good agreement with the recently proposed "ecological scaffolding" hypothesis, one of the curious properties that HS-3 possesses that has surprised us. We now believe that the transition to multicellularity would be a more complex and beautiful process than we had previously anticipated. M I Z U N O and M O R I K A W A made a comment

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