<i>In Vitro</i> Culture of the Insect Endosymbiont <i>Spiroplasma poulsonii</i> Highlights Bacterial Genes Involved in Host-Symbiont Interaction.

ABSTRACT: Endosymbiotic bacteria associated with eukaryotic hosts are omnipresent in nature, particularly in insects. Studying the bacterial side of host-symbiont interactions is, however, often limited by the unculturability and genetic intractability of the symbionts. Spiroplasma poulsonii is a maternally transmitted bacterial endosymbiont that is naturally associated with several Drosophila species. S. poulsonii strongly affects its host's physiology, for example by causing male killing or by protecting it against various parasites. Despite intense work on this model since the 1950s, attempts to cultivate endosymbiotic Spiroplasma in vitro have failed so far. Here, we developed a method to sustain the in vitro culture of S. poulsonii by optimizing a comme

SUBMITTER: Masson F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5874924 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature