Population Structure of Vibrio fischeri within the Light Organs of Euprymna scolopes Squid from Two Oahu (Hawaii) Populations

We resolved the intraspecific diversity of Vibrio fischeri, the bioluminescent symbiont of the Hawaiian sepiolid squid Euprymna scolopes, at two previously unexplored morphological and geographical scales. These scales ranged from submillimeter regions within the host light organ to the several kilometers encompassing two host populations around Oahu. To facilitate this effort, we employed both novel and standard genetic and phenotypic assays of light-organ symbiont populations. A V. fischeri-specific fingerprinting method and five phenotypic assays were used to gauge the genetic richness of V. fischeri populations; these methods confirmed that the symbiont population present in each adult host's light organ is polyclonal. Upon statistical analysis of these genetic and phenotypic population data, we concluded that the characteristics of symbiotic populations were more similar within individual host populations than between the two distinct Oahu populations of E. scolopes, providing evidence that local geographic symbiont population structure exists. Finally, to better understand the genesis of symbiont diversity within host light organs, the process of symbiosis initiation in newly hatched juvenile squid was examined both experimentally and by mathematical modeling. We concluded that, after the juvenile hatches, only one or two cells of V. fischeri enter each of six internal epithelium-lined crypts present in the developing light organ. We hypothesize that the expansion of different, crypt-segregated, clonal populations creates the polyclonal adult light-organ population structure observed in this study. The stability of the luminous-bacterium-sepiolid squid mutualism in the presence of a polyclonal symbiont population structure is discussed in the context of contemporary evolutionary theory.