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Shipworms are capable of digesting wood down to its component sugars with the help of enzymes produced by their symbiotic bacteria. These enzymes (cellulases) have potential applications for green biofuel production (for more details, see our Oct 2010 newsletter). Ongoing research at OGL is focused on identifying and characterizing these enzymes in two lab-reared shipworm species (Bankia setacea and Lyrodus pedicellatus), but there are many other species and many of them reside in the mangroves of the Philippines. So, in December, OGL director Dan Distel and post-doc Robbie O'Connor joined their collaborators in the Philippine Mollusk Symbiont-International Collaborative Biodiversity Group (PMS-ICBG), on a shipworm collecting trip to the Philippines.
 | CSU students extracting shipworms back at the "lab".
Photo by Margo Haygood |
The first stop was Butuan City, Mindanao, on the southernmost island of the Philippines. There Romell Seronay, a professor at Caraga State University (CSU) and his students joined the group. Bait wood and pieces of mangrove trees loaded with shipworms were collected from nearby mangrove swamps and brought back to the "lab" at the hotel, where axe, hammer, pliers, wire cutters and tweezers were used to extract shipworms large and small. Romell's students were extraordinary shipworm extractors, presenting Dan with more shipworms than he could keep up with! Once extracted from the wood, the shipworms were dissected, and the various parts stored in buffers for later DNA and RNA extraction, or fixed for microscopy. Gill tissue and intestinal contents were processed to isolate the symbiotic bacteria.  | Kuphus dissection: Intact Kuphus tube (left); animal removed from tube (right).
Photo by Robbie O'Connor |
The next stop was the Marine Science Institute (MSI) at the University of the Philippines to meet researchers from Southern Mindanao who were bringing a real treat: four specimens of the giant shipworm Kuphus polythalamia. Unlike other shipworms, Kuphus burrows in mud rather than wood. It can grow up to six feet long and over two inches in diameter. Dissection was quite a challenge!  | In the Infanta mangroves with our boat full of wood!
Photo by Marvin Altamia |
The last collection site was Infanta on the coast east of Manila. There, Marvin Altamia, one of the scientists at MSI and former OGL-lab member, had contacted a local fisherman to assist in collecting shipworm-infested wood. The fishermen of Infanta are very familiar with shipworms (or "Tamilok"); they often eat them-raw (potentially a new gourmet dish for US markets? We are not holding our breath!). The fisherman welcomed the team with a boat filled with mangrove wood. This wood yielded beautiful specimens and plans were made to return to this productive site. Then it was time to head back to MSI to pack up and obtain permits to bring the specimens back to OGL for more research. At both OGL and at MSI, ongoing research on these exotic shipworms is providing more ideas and directions for biofuel development. Now that's a shipworm tale that might make Mayor Bloomberg smile... ***Want to learn more?***
How to eat a Wooden Ship: Dan Distel presents the value of sequencing the shipworm microbiome. Biofuel from Bacteria: See how scientists at UC Berkeley are working to make one of the first butanol factories - using cellulose-degrading bacteria. |
