Environmental microbiomes drive chemotactile sensation in octopus

Abstract

Microbial communities coat nearly every surface in the environment and have co-existed with animals throughout evolution. Whether animals exploit omnipresent microbial cues to navigate their surroundings is not well understood. Octopuses use "taste by touch" chemotactile receptors (CRs) to explore the seafloor, but how they distinguish meaningful surfaces from the rocks and crevices they encounter is unknown. Here, we report that secreted signals from microbiomes of ecologically relevant surfaces activate CRs to guide octopus behavior. Distinct molecules isolated from specific bacterial strains located on prey or eggs bind single CRs in subtly different structural conformations to elicit distinct mechanisms of receptor activation, ion permeation and signal transduction, and maternal care and predation behavior. Thus, microbiomes on ecological surfaces act at the level of primary sensory receptors to inform behavior. Our study demonstrates that uncovering interkingdom interactions is essential to understanding how animal sensory systems evolved in a microbe rich world. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/641191v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (140K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@15f365eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ea5606org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b5ad1aorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@779e6e_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG HighlightsO_LIChemotactile receptors (CRs) detect microbiomes of prey and progeny C_LIO_LIDiverse microbial signals bind single CRs with distinct structural conformations C_LIO_LIDistinct microbial signals activate single CRs to permeate different ions C_LIO_LIEnvironmental microbes elicit octopus predatory and maternal behaviors C_LI