Intracellular symbionts drive sex ratio in the whitefly by facilitating fertilization and provisioning of B vitamins.

ABSTRACT: Symbionts can regulate animal reproduction in multiple ways, but the underlying physiological and biochemical mechanisms remain largely unknown. The presence of multiple lineages of maternally inherited, intracellular symbionts (the primary and secondary symbionts) in terrestrial arthropods is widespread in nature. However, the biological, metabolic, and evolutionary role of co-resident secondary symbionts for hosts is poorly understood. The bacterial symbionts Hamiltonella and Arsenophonus have very high prevalence in two globally important pests, the whiteflies Bemisia tabaci and Trialeurodes vaporariorum, respectively. Both symbionts coexist with the primary symbiont Portiera in the same host cell (bacteriocyte) and are maternally transmitted. We found that elimination of both Hamiltone

SUBMITTER: Wang YB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7784916 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature