We have purified DNA from gill tissue of a marine bivalve, Calyptogena soyoae, collected from the deep-sea cold seep communities in Sagami Bay, Japan. An rRNA gene was amplified, cloned, and sequenced. In situ hybridization revealed that the sequence is that of a bacterial endosymbiont within the gill of C. soyoae.

The basic facts of chloroplast and mitochondrial endosymbiosis are by now the stuff of textbooks. Early in eukaryotic evolution, an anaerobic protist engulfed a respiring bacterium, probably an a-proteobacterium (1, 2), and the resulting partnership between symbiont (bacterium turned mitochondrion) and host gave rise to most, perhaps all, extant eukaryotes. Subsequently, a respiring eukaryote a...

Endosymbiotic bacteria associated with eukaryotic hosts are omnipresent in nature, particularly in insects. Studying the bacterial side of host-symbiont interactions is, however, often limited by the unculturability and genetic intractability of the symbionts. Spiroplasma poulsonii is a maternally transmitted bacterial endosymbiont that is naturally associated with several Drosophila species. S...

Dinoflagellates harboring diatom endosymbionts (termed "dinotoms") have undergone a process often referred to as "tertiary endosymbiosis"--the uptake of algae containing secondary plastids and integration of those plastids into the new host. In contrast to other tertiary plastids, and most secondary plastids, the endosymbiont of dinotoms is distinctly less reduced, retaining a number of cellula...

We characterized a multifunctional cellulase (CelAB) encoded by the endosymbiont Teredinibacter turnerae T7902(T). CelAB contains two catalytic and two carbohydrate-binding domains, each separated by polyserine linker regions. CelAB binds cellulose and chitin, degrades multiple complex polysaccharides, and displays two catalytic activities, cellobiohydrolase (EC 3.2.1.91) and beta-1,4(3) endogl...

Cockroaches harbor the obligate flavobacterial endosymbiont Blattabacterium sp., which resides within the host's bacteriocytes and can recycle ammonia and urea nitrogenous wastes into amino acids for the host. We report the complete genome sequence of the Blattabacterium sp. associated with the giant roach Blaberus giganteus.

"Candidatus Hamiltonella defensa" is a facultative endosymbiont of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Herein, we report the first draft genome sequence of "Candidatus Hamiltonella defensa" from the invasive Mediterranean cryptic species of the B. tabaci complex. The 1.84-Mbp genome sequence comprises 404 contigs and contains 1,806 predicted protein-coding genes.

Specific Rhizopus microsporus pathovars harbor bacterial endosymbionts (Burkholderia rhizoxinica) for the production of a phytotoxin. Here, we present the draft genome sequences of two R. microsporus strains, one symbiotic (ATCC 62417), and one endosymbiont-free (CBS 344.29). The gene predictions were supported by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data. The functional annotation sets the basis for compa...

Plastids are organelles derived from cyanobacterial endosymbionts and the evolutionary process that gave rise to them is well understood. Or is it? The complete genome sequence of a recently evolved photosynthetic body in Paulinella chromatophora is cause for reflection on the distinction between 'endosymbiont' and 'organelle', and how the boundaries between these terms can blur.

UNLABELLED Perkinsela is an enigmatic early-branching kinetoplastid protist that lives as an obligate endosymbiont inside Paramoeba (Amoebozoa). We have sequenced the highly reduced mitochondrial genome of Perkinsela, which possesses only six protein-coding genes (cox1, cox2, cox3, cob, atp6, and rps12), despite the fact that the organelle itself contains more DNA than is present in either the ...