Culture-Facilitated Comparative Genomics of the Facultative Symbiont Hamiltonella defensa.

ABSTRACT: Many insects host facultative, bacterial symbionts that confer conditional fitness benefits to their hosts. Hamiltonella defensa is a common facultative symbiont of aphids that provides protection against parasitoid wasps. Protection levels vary among strains of H. defensa that are also differentially infected by bacteriophages named APSEs. However, little is known about trait variation among strains because only one isolate has been fully sequenced. Generating complete genomes for facultative symbionts is hindered by relatively large genome sizes but low abundances in hosts like aphids that are very small. Here, we took advantage of methods for culturing H. defensa outside of aphids to generate complete genomes and transcriptome data for four strains of H. defensa from the pea aphid Acyrt

SUBMITTER: Chevignon G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5841374 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature