| laccase2 is required for cuticular pigmentation in stinkbugs. | during the maturation of insect cuticle, protein-protein and protein-chitin crosslinkages are formed by the action of diphenoloxidases. two types of diphenoloxidases, laccases and tyrosinases, are present in the insect cuticle. in coleopteran and hymenopteran insects, laccase2 gene has been identified as encoding an enzyme principally responsible for cuticular pigmentation and hardening, whereas biological roles of laccase genes in hemimetabolous insects remain to be established. here we identif ... | 2010 | 21167282 |
| ultrabithorax is essential for bacteriocyte development. | symbiosis often entails the emergence of novel adaptive traits in organisms. microbial symbionts are indispensable for diverse insects via provisioning of essential nutrients, wherein novel host cells and organs for harboring the microbes, called bacteriocytes and bacteriomes, have evolved repeatedly. molecular and developmental mechanisms underpinning the emergence of novel symbiotic cells and organs comprise an unsolved question in evolutionary developmental biology. here, we report that a con ... | 2015 | 26170303 |
| bartonella-like bacteria carried by domestic mite species. | bacteria of the genus bartonella are carried by haematophagous mites, ticks, fleas and flies, and attack the erythrocytes of mammals. here we describe a bartonella-like clade, a distinct group related to bartonellaceae, in stored-product mites (acari: astigmata) and a predatory mite cheyletus eruditus (acari: prostigmata) based on the analysis of cloned 16s rrna gene sequences. by using the clade-specific primers, closely related bartonella-like 16s rrna sequences were amplified from both labora ... | 2014 | 24711066 |
| novel clade of alphaproteobacterial endosymbionts associated with stinkbugs and other arthropods. | here we report a novel clade of secondary endosymbionts associated with insects and other arthropods. seed bugs of the genus nysius (hemiptera: lygaeidae) harbor the primary gammaproteobacterial symbiont schneideria nysicola within a pair of bacteriomes in the abdomen. our survey of nysius species for their facultative bacterial associates consistently yielded a novel type of alphaproteobacterial 16s rrna gene sequence in addition to those of wolbachia. diagnostic pcr survey of 343 individuals r ... | 2012 | 22504806 |