Symbiont replacements reset the co-evolutionary relationship between insects and their heritable bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Auchenorrhynchan insects (Hemiptera) generally depend on two bacterial symbionts for nutrition. These bacteria experience extreme genome reduction and loss of essential cell functions that require direct host support, or the replacement of failing symbionts with more capable ones. However, it remains unclear how hosts adapt to integrate symbionts into their systems, particularly when they are replaced. Here, we comparatively investigated the evolution of host-support mechanisms in the glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (GWSS), and the aster leafhopper, Macrosteles quadrilineatus (ALF). ALF harbors the ancestral co-symbionts of the Auchenorrhyncha that have tiny genomes, Sulcia (190 kb) and Nasuia (112 kb). In GWSS, Sulcia retains an expanded genome (245 kb), but Nasuia was

SUBMITTER: Mao M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7242365 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature