Live imaging of symbiosis: spatiotemporal infection dynamics of a GFP-labelled Burkholderia symbiont in the bean bug Riptortus pedestris.

ABSTRACT: Many insects possess endosymbiotic bacteria inside their body, wherein intimate interactions occur between the partners. While recent technological advancements have deepened our understanding of metabolic and evolutionary features of the symbiont genomes, molecular mechanisms underpinning the intimate interactions remain difficult to approach because the insect symbionts are generally uncultivable. The bean bug Riptortus pedestris is associated with the betaproteobacterial Burkholderia symbiont in a posterior region of the midgut, which develops numerous crypts harbouring the symbiont extracellularly. Distinct from other insect symbiotic systems, R. pedestris acquires the Burkholderia symbiont not by vertical transmission but from the environment every generation. By making use of the cul

SUBMITTER: Kikuchi Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4238818 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature