Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Coral Reef Arks: An In Situ Mesocosm and Toolkit for Assembling Reef Communities
Published on: January 6, 2023
Diversity and function of epibiotic microbial communities on the galatheid crab, Shinkaia crosnieri
Tomo-O Watsuji1, Satoshi Nakagawa, Shinji Tsuchida
1Subsurface Geobiology Advanced Research Team (SUGAR), Extremobiosphere Research Program (XBR), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 2–15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka 237–0061.
Abstract:
The galatheid crab, Shinkaia crosnieri (Decapoda: Galatheidae), forms dense colonies in the Iheya North and Hatoma Knoll deep-sea hydrothermal fields and has numerous setae covered with filamentous epibiotic microorganisms. Molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that the epibiotic communities in S. crosnieri consisted mainly of yet-uncultivated phylotypes within Epsilonproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria in both hydrothermal vent fields. Uptake experiments using (13)C-labeled tracers clearly demonstrated that both H(13)CO(3)(-) and (13)CH(4) were assimilated into not only the epibiotic microbial communities associated with the setae, but also the epibiont-free tissue of living S. crosnieri. In addition, the incorporation of H(13)CO(3)(-) into the microbial cells was strongly stimulated by the presence of reduced sulfur compounds but not by H(2). In conclusion, the uptake experiments suggested that sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic and methanotrophic production by the epibionts provides the nutrition for S. crosnieri.
Related Concept Videos
Diversity of Archaea IV
Diversity of Archaea II
Diversity of Archaea III
Diversity of Archaea I
Microbiota of the Large Intestine
Introduction to Microbial Ecology

