The Cost of Metabolic Interactions in Symbioses between Insects and Bacteria with Reduced Genomes.

ABSTRACT: Various intracellular bacterial symbionts that provide their host with essential nutrients have much-reduced genomes, attributed largely to genomic decay and relaxed selection. To obtain quantitative estimates of the metabolic function of these bacteria, we reconstructed genome- and transcriptome-informed metabolic models of three xylem-feeding insects that bear two bacterial symbionts with complementary metabolic functions: a primary symbiont, Sulcia, that has codiversified with the insects, and a coprimary symbiont of distinct taxonomic origin and with different degrees of genome reduction in each insect species (Hodgkinia in a cicada, Baumannia in a sharpshooter, and Sodalis in a spittlebug). Our simulations reveal extensive bidirectional flux of multiple met

SUBMITTER: Ankrah NYD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6156193 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature