Revealing the metabolic capacity of Streblomastix strix and its bacterial symbionts using single-cell metagenomics.

ABSTRACT: Lower termites harbor in their hindgut complex microbial communities that are involved in the digestion of cellulose. Among these are protists, which are usually associated with specific bacterial symbionts found on their surface or inside their cells. While these form the foundations of a classic system in symbiosis research, we still know little about the functional basis for most of these relationships. Here, we describe the complex functional relationship between one protist, the oxymonad Streblomastix strix, and its ectosymbiotic bacterial community using single-cell genomics. We generated partial assemblies of the host S. strix genome and Candidatus Ordinivivax streblomastigis, as well as a complex metagenome assembly of at least 8 other Bacteroidetes bacteria co

SUBMITTER: Treitli SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6765251 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature