Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a globally distributed pest composed of at least 34 morphologically indistinguishable cryptic species. At least seven species of endosymbiont have been found infecting some or all members of the complex. The origin(s) of the associations between specific endosymbionts and their whitefly hosts is unknown. Infection is normally vertical, but horizontal t...

Cellulolytic flagellated protists inhabit the hindgut of termites. They are unique and essential to termites and related wood-feeding cockroaches, enabling host feeding on cellulosic matter. Protists of two genera in the family Teranymphidae (phylum Parabasalia), Eucomonympha and Teranympha, are phylogenetically closely related and harbor intracellular endosymbiotic bacteria from the genus Trep...

Associations between endosymbiotic bacteria and their hosts represent a complex ecosystem within organisms ranging from humans to protozoa. Drosophila species are known to naturally harbor Wolbachia and Spiroplasma endosymbionts, which play a protective role against certain microbial infections. Here, we investigated whether the presence or absence of endosymbionts affects the immune response o...

Citation: Rädecker N, Pogoreutz C, Wild C and Voolstra CR (2017) Stimulated Respiration and Net Photosynthesis in Cassiopeia sp. during Glucose Enrichment Suggests in hospite CO2 Limitation of Algal Endosymbionts. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:267. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00267 Stimulated Respiration and Net Photosynthesis in Cassiopeia sp. during Glucose Enrichment Suggests in hospite CO2 Limitation of A...

The mealy bug, Rhizoecus amorphophalli, is a menace to the aroid farmers due to the intensive infestation on stored tubers. Spraying of pesticides was able to control this pest but it always left a chance for fungal growth. Bacterial endosymbionts associated with the insects provide several benefits to their host. Since such endosymbionts play a vital role even in the physiology of their host, ...

Bemisia tabaci, an invasive pest that causes crop damage worldwide, is a highly differentiated species complex, divided into biotypes that have mainly been defined based on mitochondrial DNA sequences. Although endosymbionts can potentially induce population differentiation, specialization and indirect selection on mtDNA, studies have largely ignored these influential passengers in B. tabaci, d...

Reduced-genome symbionts and their organelle counterparts, which have even smaller genomes, are essential to the lives of many organisms. But how and why have these genomes become so small? Endosymbiotic genome reduction is a product of isolation within the host, followed by massive pseudogenization and gene loss often including DNA repair mechanisms. This phenomenon can be observed in insect e...

Endosymbiosis is a common phenomenon in nature, especially between bacteria and insects, whose typically unbalanced diets are usually complemented by their obligate endosymbionts. While much interest and focus has been directed toward phloem-feeders like aphids and mealybugs, blood-feeders such as the Lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum), Glossina flies, and the human body louse (Pediculus hum...

We found that insertion sequence (IS) elements are unusually abundant in the relatively recently evolved bacterial endosymbionts of maize weevils. Because multicopy elements can facilitate genomic recombination and deletion, this IS expansion may represent an early stage in the genomic reduction that is common in most ancient endosymbionts.

It is commonly assumed that transformations of endosymbionts into organelles are exceptionally rare evolutionary events because of hypothetical difficulties in the origin of an import apparatus for nuclear-encoded, organelle-targeted proteins along with their targeting signals. A challenge to this view comes from recent studies of protein import into the cyanobacterial endosymbionts/organelles ...