Rational engineering of a synthetic insect-bacterial mutualism.

ABSTRACT: Many insects maintain mutualistic associations with bacterial endosymbionts, but little is known about how they originate in nature. In this study, we describe the establishment and manipulation of a synthetic insect-bacterial symbiosis in a weevil host. Following egg injection, the nascent symbiont colonized many tissues, including prototypical somatic and germinal bacteriomes, yielding maternal transmission over many generations. We then engineered the nascent symbiont to overproduce the aromatic amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine, which facilitate weevil cuticle strengthening and accelerated larval development, replicating the function of mutualistic symbionts that are widely distributed among weevils and other beetles in nature. Our work provides empirical support for the notion th

SUBMITTER: Su Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10080585 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature