Gutless marine worms survive because bacteria living beneath their skin support nutrition and waste management. Those partnerships are essential, but they are not fixed: a new study reports that worms can acquire symbionts and sometimes lose them while retaining patterns of bacterial communities associated with their species.
How do gutless marine worms survive without a gut?
The worms described by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology lack a mouth, gut and excretory organs. Bacteria beneath their skin perform functions that help meet the animals’ nutritional needs and manage waste. The animals therefore depend on microbial partners, even though the identity of those partners can change.
The researchers suggest that different bacteria may offer access to different food or energy sources. That could be useful in habitats where nutrients are scarce, but the institute presents it as a possible explanation for partner turnover, not as a demonstrated cause.
What did the researchers compare?
The study brought together nearly 250 worms representing 63 species from 17 locations, using samples collected across three decades of expeditions. The Max Planck Institute says technical advances made analysis of individual worms more feasible; the sample totals describe the study’s scope, not a measured effect or outcome. The institute’s October 6, 2026 summary describes the comparisons.
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The paper is Anna Mankowski, Manuel Kleiner, Christer Erséus, Nikolaus Leisch, Yui Sato, Jean-Marie Volland, Bruno Huettel, Cecilia Wentrup, Tanja Woyke, Juliane Wippler, Nicole Dubilier and Harald R. Gruber-Vodicka, “Stability in flexibility: Shifting alliances stabilize the symbioses of marine animals over 150 million years,” Science Advances, volume 12, number 40 (2026), DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aed14.
What stays stable, and what changes?
Worms of the same species tend to share a community pattern
The institute reports that worms belonging to the same species tend to carry similar bacterial communities, including when specimens come from distant ocean regions. This is a pattern within a host species across geography; it does not mean every individual carries an identical set of bacteria.
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Different worm species can host different communities
Communities can differ substantially between host species, even when the worms are closely related. The institute suggests that local adaptation and the needs of each host may help explain these differences, but the summary does not identify particular bacterial taxa or establish a specific mechanism.
Individual partnerships can turn over
Worms may take up new symbionts and occasionally lose existing ones. First author Anna Mankowski described the pattern this way: “The worms regularly take up new symbionts, occasionally they also drop some,” the institute’s summary reports.
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This turnover does not contradict the similarity observed within a species. A broad community pattern can remain associated with a host species while individual partnerships shift. The findings therefore pair stability at the species level with flexibility over time, rather than implying that each worm keeps the same partners throughout its life.
Why might changing partners help?
One proposed benefit is a broader menu of resources: bacteria with different abilities could help worms access additional sources of food or energy. That possibility may matter in nutrient-scarce habitats. Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier, head of the institute’s Department of Symbiosis, said: “This can be very useful, especially in habitats where nutrients are sometimes scarce.” The explanation remains a proposal in the institutional summary, not proof that partner changes cause improved nutrition or survival.
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What the available summary does not establish
The institutional account presents the broad patterns and study scope, but not detailed statistical tests, effect sizes, sequence-level findings, named symbiont taxa or a full limitations section. It does not quantify how often partners change or show that turnover itself produces a measurable benefit. Harald R. Gruber-Vodicka, identified as project leader, noted the technical shift that enabled individual-level work: “Now we can work with single individuals of animals smaller than a pinhead.” The Max Planck Institute summary provides the reported findings and quotations.
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