Predictive Genomic Analyses Inform the Basis for Vitamin Metabolism and Provisioning in Bacteria-Arthropod Endosymbioses.

ABSTRACT: The requirement of vitamins for core metabolic processes creates a unique set of pressures for arthropods subsisting on nutrient-limited diets. While endosymbiotic bacteria carried by arthropods have been widely implicated in vitamin provisioning, the underlying molecular mechanisms are not well understood. To address this issue, standardized predictive assessment of vitamin metabolism was performed in 50 endosymbionts of insects and arachnids. The results predicted that arthropod endosymbionts overall have little capacity for complete de novo biosynthesis of conventional or active vitamin forms. Partial biosynthesis pathways were commonly predicted, suggesting a substantial role in vitamin provisioning. Neither taxonomic relationships between host and symbiont, nor the mode of host

SUBMITTER: Serbus LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5473766 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature