Burkholderia bacteria use chemotaxis to find social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum hosts.

ABSTRACT: A key question in cooperation is how to find the right partners and maintain cooperative relationships. This is especially challenging for horizontally transferred bacterial symbionts where relationships must be repeatedly established anew. In the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum farming symbiosis, two species of inedible Burkholderia bacteria (Burkholderia agricolaris and Burkholderia hayleyella) initiate stable associations with naive D. discoideum hosts and cause carriage of additional bacterial species. However, it is not clear how the association between D. discoideum and its carried Burkholderia is formed and maintained. Here, we look at precisely how Burkholderia finds its hosts. We found that both species of Burkholderia clones isolated from D. discoideum, but not other teste

SUBMITTER: Shu L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6052080 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature