A shared characteristic among animals is their propensity to form stable, b
eneficial relationships with prokaryotes. Usually these associations occur
in the form of consortia, i.e. a diverse assemblage of bacteria interacting
with a single animal host. These complex communities, while common, have b
een difficult to characterize. The two-partner symbiosis between the squid
Euprymna scolopes and the marine luminous bacterium Vibrio fischeri offers
the opportunity to study the interaction between animal and bacterial cells
, because both partners can be cultured in the laboratory and the symbiosis
can be manipulated experimentally. This system is being used to characteri
ze the mechanisms by which animals establish, develop and maintain stable a
lliances with bacteria. This review summarizes the progress to date on the
development of this model. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserv
ed.