Evidence for maternal transmission of a putative endosymbiont in the digestive gland of pomacea canaliculata (Architaenioglossa, ampullariidae)

Abstract

The digestive gland of the apple snail Pomacea canaliculata lodges two types of pigmented corpuscles (identified as C and K corpuscles) which has been proposed as endosymbiont/s. Both corpuscular types are always present in the digestive gland of adult snails, they are released into the tubuloacinar lumen and are later expelled in the feces. On their part, hatchlings lack any C or K corpuscles in the digestive gland as well as in their feces, whereas C corpuscles appear in both the gland and feces within one week after hatching. Hence, it is possible that the detritivorous hatchlings acquire the putative C-endosymbiont from feces in the sediments where they live, i.e. through ‘lateral’ or ‘horizontal’ transmission. This possibility was put to test in an experiment in which we prevented any lateral transmission, by a 7-days aseptic culture, with no food, of aseptically obtained hatchlings. At the end of the experiment, we observed that most juveniles had survived the culture period, and hence the digestive glands and feces of survivors were studied by light microscopy of resin embedded, toluidine blue-stained sections. All studied glands and fecal samples showed C corpuscles. It is concluded that lateral transmission of the endosymbiont, if any, is not indispensable for the acquisition of the endosymbiont by hatchlings.