Abstract
A distinct smell of dimethylsulfide (DMS) was noted at the edge of the intertidal mudflat of Marennes-Oléron Bay, at the French Atlantic coast, where dense populations of the marine flatworm Convoluta roscoffensis Graff (Platyhelminthes: Turbellaria) were present. DMS is the cleavage product of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP). DMSP was shown to be present in high amounts in sediment containing the flatworm as well as in axenic cultures of the symbiotic alga Tetraselmis sp. that was isolated from the flatworm. In untreated sediment samples containing C. roscoffensis the concentration of DMS was as high as ∼55 μmol l−1 sediment, and in samples that were fixed with glutaraldehyde the concentration of DMS was even three orders of magnitude higher (∼66 mmol l−1 sediment). This rapid cleavage of DMSP to DMS in fixed samples was unexpected. Pure DMSP was stable in glutaraldehyde, and it was therefore concluded that a DMSP-lyase was responsible for cleavage in the field samples. The isolated symbiotic alga, Tetraselmis sp., did not show DMSP-lyase activity, indicating that DMSP-lyase may have been present in the flatworm, although the role of bacteria could not be excluded. The Chl a-specific DMSP content of C. roscoffensis (∼200 mmol g−1) was much higher than that of Tetraselmis sp. (∼30 mmol g−1). Possibly, DMSP was not only present in the symbiotic alga, but was also incorporated in the body tissue of the flatworm. It remains unclear what the function of DMSP is in C. roscoffensis. In Tetraselmis sp., but not in C. roscoffensis, DMSP increased with increasing salinity. It was concluded that salinity probably does not play an important role in the dynamics of DMSP and DMS in sediment containing C. roscoffensis.
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Received: 21 January 2000 / Accepted: 29 August 2000
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Van Bergeijk, S., Stal, L. Dimethylsulfoniopropionate and dimethylsulfide in the marine flatworm Convoluta roscoffensis and its algal symbiont. Marine Biology 138, 209–216 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002270000444
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002270000444