An out-of-body experience: the extracellular dimension for the transmission of mutualistic bacteria in insects.

ABSTRACT: Across animals and plants, numerous metabolic and defensive adaptations are a direct consequence of symbiotic associations with beneficial microbes. Explaining how these partnerships are maintained through evolutionary time remains one of the central challenges within the field of symbiosis research. While genome erosion and co-cladogenesis with the host are well-established features of symbionts exhibiting intracellular localization and transmission, the ecological and evolutionary consequences of an extracellular lifestyle have received little attention, despite a demonstrated prevalence and functional importance across many host taxa. Using insect-bacteria symbioses as a model, we highlight the diverse routes of extracellular symbiont transfer. Extracellular transmission routes are unif

SUBMITTER: Salem H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4375872 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature