Fossil microbial shark tooth decay documents in situ metabolism of enameloid proteins as nutrition source in deep water environments

Autor(en)

Iris Feichtinger, Alexander Lukeneder, Dan Topa, Jürgen Kriwet, Eugen Libowitzky, Frances Westall

Abstrakt

Alteration of organic remains during the transition from the bio- to lithosphere is affected strongly by biotic processes of microbes influencing the potential of dead matter to become fossilized or vanish ultimately. If fossilized, bones, cartilage, and tooth dentine often display traces of bioerosion caused by destructive microbes. The causal agents, however, usually remain ambiguous. Here we present a new type of tissue alteration in fossil deep-sea shark teeth with in situ preservation of the responsible organisms embedded in a delicate filmy substance identified as extrapolymeric matter. The invading microorganisms are arranged in nest- or chain-like patterns between fluorapatite bundles of the superficial enameloid. Chemical analysis of the bacteriomorph structures indicates replacement by a phyllosilicate, which enabled in situ preservation. Our results imply that bacteria invaded the hypermineralized tissue for harvesting intra-crystalline bound organic matter, which provided nutrient supply in a nutrient depleted deep-marine environment they inhabited. We document here for the first time in situ bacteria preservation in tooth enameloid, one of the hardest mineralized tissues developed by animals. This unambiguously verifies that microbes also colonize highly mineralized dental capping tissues with only minor organic content when nutrients are scarce as in deep-marine
environments.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Paläontologie, Institut für Mineralogie und Kristallographie

Externe Organisation(en)

Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NHM), CBM Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire

Journal

Scientific Reports

Band

10

Seiten

1-11

Anzahl der Seiten

11

ISSN

2045-2322

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77964-5

Publikationsdatum

12-2020

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

105118 Paläontologie

Schlagwörter

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 14 – Leben unter Wasser

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/fossil-microbial-shark-tooth-decay-documents-in-situ-metabolism-of-enameloid-proteins-as-nutrition-source-in-deep-water-environments(f94f7917-317a-469b-a843-496ce0fb5024).html