Dynamics of multiple symbiont density regulation during host development: tsetse fly and its microbial flora.

ABSTRACT: Symbiotic associations often enhance hosts' physiological capabilities, allowing them to expand into restricted terrains, thus leading to biological diversification. Stable maintenance of partners is essential for the overall biological system to succeed. The viviparous tsetse fly (Diptera: Glossinidae) offers an exceptional system to examine factors that influence the maintenance of multiple symbiotic organisms within a single eukaryotic host. This insect harbours three different symbionts representing diverse associations, coevolutionary histories and transmission modes. The enterics, obligate mutualist Wigglesworthia and beneficial Sodalis, are maternally transmitted to the intrauterine larvae, while parasitic Wolbachia infects the developing oocyte. In this study, the population dynami

SUBMITTER: Rio RV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1560226 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature