| symbiosis and insect diversification: an ancient symbiont of sap-feeding insects from the bacterial phylum bacteroidetes. | several insect groups have obligate, vertically transmitted bacterial symbionts that provision hosts with nutrients that are limiting in the diet. some of these bacteria have been shown to descend from ancient infections. here we show that the large group of related insects including cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, spittlebugs, and planthoppers host a distinct clade of bacterial symbionts. this newly described symbiont lineage belongs to the phylum bacteroidetes. analyses of 16s rrna genes in ... | 2005 | 16332876 |
| metabolic complementarity and genomics of the dual bacterial symbiosis of sharpshooters. | mutualistic intracellular symbiosis between bacteria and insects is a widespread phenomenon that has contributed to the global success of insects. the symbionts, by provisioning nutrients lacking from diets, allow various insects to occupy or dominate ecological niches that might otherwise be unavailable. one such insect is the glassy-winged sharpshooter (homalodisca coagulata), which feeds on xylem fluid, a diet exceptionally poor in organic nutrients. phylogenetic studies based on rrna have sh ... | 2006 | 16729848 |
| nitrogen recycling and nutritional provisioning by blattabacterium, the cockroach endosymbiont. | nitrogen acquisition and assimilation is a primary concern of insects feeding on diets largely composed of plant material. reclaiming nitrogen from waste products provides a rich reserve for this limited resource, provided that recycling mechanisms are in place. cockroaches, unlike most terrestrial insects, excrete waste nitrogen within their fat bodies as uric acids, postulated to be a supplement when dietary nitrogen is limited. the fat bodies of most cockroaches are inhabited by blattabacteri ... | 2009 | 19880743 |
| co-cladogenesis spanning three phyla: leafhoppers (insecta: hemiptera: cicadellidae) and their dual bacterial symbionts. | endosymbioses are a major form of biological complexity affecting the ecological and evolutionary diversification of many eukaryotic groups. these associations are exemplified by nutritional symbioses of insects for which phylogenetic studies have demonstrated numerous cases of long-term codiversification between a bacterial and a host lineage. some insects, including most leafhoppers (insecta: hemiptera: cicadellidae), have more than one bacterial symbiont within specialized host cells, raising ... | 2006 | 17054511 |
| phylogenetic congruence of armored scale insects (hemiptera: diaspididae) and their primary endosymbionts from the phylum bacteroidetes. | insects in the sap-sucking hemipteran suborder sternorrhyncha typically harbor maternally transmitted bacteria housed in a specialized organ, the bacteriome. in three of the four superfamilies of sternorrhyncha (aphidoidea, aleyrodoidea, psylloidea), the bacteriome-associated (primary) bacterial lineage is from the class gammaproteobacteria (phylum proteobacteria). the fourth superfamily, coccoidea (scale insects), has a diverse array of bacterial endosymbionts whose affinities are largely unexp ... | 2007 | 17400002 |
| convergent evolution of metabolic roles in bacterial co-symbionts of insects. | a strictly host-dependent lifestyle has profound evolutionary consequences for bacterial genomes. most prominent is a sometimes-dramatic amount of gene loss and genome reduction. recently, highly reduced genomes from the co-resident intracellular symbionts of sharpshooters were shown to exhibit a striking level of metabolic interdependence. one symbiont, called sulcia muelleri (bacteroidetes), can produce eight of the 10 essential amino acids, despite having a genome of only 245 kb. the other, b ... | 2009 | 19706397 |
| parallel genomic evolution and metabolic interdependence in an ancient symbiosis. | obligate symbioses with nutrient-provisioning bacteria have originated often during animal evolution and have been key to the ecological diversification of many invertebrate groups. to date, genome sequences of insect nutritional symbionts have been restricted to a related cluster within gammaproteobacteria and have revealed distinctive features, including extreme reduction, rapid evolution, and biased nucleotide composition. using recently developed sequencing technologies, we show that sulcia ... | 2007 | 18048332 |
| bacterial endosymbiont localization in hyalesthes obsoletus, the insect vector of bois noir in vitis vinifera. | one emerging disease of grapevine in europe is bois noir (bn), a phytoplasmosis caused by "candidatus phytoplasma solani" and spread in vineyards by the planthopper hyalesthes obsoletus (hemiptera: cixiidae). here we present the first full characterization of the bacterial community of this important disease vector collected from bn-contaminated areas in piedmont, italy. length heterogeneity pcr and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis targeting the 16s rrna gene revealed the presenc ... | 2010 | 21183640 |
| graph-based analysis of the metabolic exchanges between two co-resident intracellular symbionts, baumannia cicadellinicola and sulcia muelleri, with their insect host, homalodisca coagulata. | endosymbiotic bacteria from different species can live inside cells of the same eukaryotic organism. metabolic exchanges occur between host and bacteria but also between different endocytobionts. since a complete genome annotation is available for both, we built the metabolic network of two endosymbiotic bacteria, sulcia muelleri and baumannia cicadellinicola, that live inside specific cells of the sharpshooter homalodisca coagulata and studied the metabolic exchanges involving transfers of carb ... | 2010 | 20838465 |
| functional convergence in reduced genomes of bacterial symbionts spanning 200 my of evolution. | the main genomic changes in the evolution of host-restricted microbial symbionts are ongoing inactivation and loss of genes combined with rapid sequence evolution and extreme structural stability; these changes reflect high levels of genetic drift due to small population sizes and strict clonality. this genomic erosion includes irreversible loss of genes in many functional categories and can include genes that underlie the nutritional contributions to hosts that are the basis of the symbiotic as ... | 2010 | 20829280 |
| characterization and evolution of two bacteriome-inhabiting symbionts in cixiid planthoppers (hemiptera: fulgoromorpha: pentastirini). | like other plant sap-sucking insects, planthoppers within the family cixiidae (insecta: hemiptera: fulgoromorpha) host a diversified microbiota. we report the identification and first molecular characterization of symbiotic bacteria in cixiid planthoppers (tribe: pentastirini). using universal eubacterial primers we first screened the eubacterial 16s rrna sequences in pentastiridius leporinus (linnaeus) with pcr amplification, cloning, and restriction fragment analysis. we identified three main ... | 2009 | 19758348 |
| one bacterial cell, one complete genome. | while the bulk of the finished microbial genomes sequenced to date are derived from cultured bacterial and archaeal representatives, the vast majority of microorganisms elude current culturing attempts, severely limiting the ability to recover complete or even partial genomes from these environmental species. single cell genomics is a novel culture-independent approach, which enables access to the genetic material of an individual cell. no single cell genome has to our knowledge been closed and ... | 2010 | 20428247 |