Comparative Genomics Underlines Multiple Roles of Profftella, an Obligate Symbiont of Psyllids: Providing Toxins, Vitamins, and Carotenoids.

ABSTRACT: The Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri (Insecta: Hemiptera: Psylloidea), a serious pest of citrus species worldwide, harbors vertically transmitted intracellular mutualists, Candidatus Profftella armatura (Profftella_DC, Gammaproteobacteria: Burkholderiales) and Candidatus Carsonella ruddii (Carsonella_DC, Gammaproteobacteria: Oceanospirillales). Whereas Carsonella_DC is a typical nutritional symbiont, Profftella_DC is a unique defensive symbiont with organelle-like features, including intracellular localization within the host, perfect infection in host populations, vertical transmission over evolutionary time, and drastic genome reduction down to much less than 1 Mb. Large parts of the 460-kb genome of Profftella_DC are devoted to genes for synthesizing a polyketide toxin; diaphorin.

SUBMITTER: Nakabachi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7643613 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature