Streblidae flies are specialised parasites of bat hosts, mainly phyllostomids. There is a high richness of streblids in the savannah-like Cerrado region; however, there is little quantitative data available in parasitological indices. Here, we describe the component community, prevalence and intensity of a streblid infestation on a phyllostomid bat assemblage in Serra da Bodoquena, a Cerrado re...

Host-microbe symbioses involving bacterial endosymbionts comprise some of the most intimate and long-lasting interactions on the planet. While restricted gene flow might be expected due to their intracellular lifestyle, many endosymbionts, especially those that switch hosts, are rampant with mobile DNA and bacteriophages. One endosymbiont, Wolbachia pipientis, infects a vast number of arthropod...

What factors drove the transformation of the cyanobacterial progenitor of plastids (e.g. chloroplasts) from endosymbiont to bona fide organelle? This question lies at the heart of organelle genesis because, whereas intracellular endosymbionts are widespread in both unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes (e.g. rhizobial bacteria, Chlorella cells in ciliates, Buchnera in aphids), only two canon...

Aphids commonly harbour facultative bacterial endosymbionts and may benefit from their presence through increased resistance to parasitoids. This has been demonstrated for Hamiltonella defensa and Serratia symbiotica, while a third common endosymbiont, Regiella insecticola, did not provide such protection. However, this symbiont was recently detected in a highly resistant clone of the peach-pot...

The fungus Harpophora oryzae is a close relative of the pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae and a beneficial endosymbiont of wild rice. Here, we show that H. oryzae evolved from a pathogenic ancestor. The overall genomic structures of H. and M. oryzae were found to be similar. However, during interactions with rice, the expression of 11.7% of all genes showed opposing trends in the two fungi, suggestin...

Long-term vertical transmission of intracellular bacteria causes massive genomic erosion and results in extremely small genomes, particularly in ancient symbionts. Genome reduction is typically preceded by the accumulation of pseudogenes and proliferation of mobile genetic elements, which are responsible for chromosome rearrangements during the initial stage of endosymbiosis. We compared the ge...

During embryonic development, cells of the green alga Oophila amblystomatis enter cells of the salamander Ambystoma maculatum forming an endosymbiosis. Here, using de novo dual-RNA seq, we compared the host salamander cells that harbored intracellular algae to those without algae and the algae inside the animal cells to those in the egg capsule. This two-by-two-way analysis revealed that intrac...

The smallest reported bacterial genome belongs to Tremblaya princeps, a symbiont of Planococcus citri mealybugs (PCIT). Tremblaya PCIT not only has a 139 kb genome, but possesses its own bacterial endosymbiont, Moranella endobia. Genome and transcriptome sequencing, including genome sequencing from a Tremblaya lineage lacking intracellular bacteria, reveals that the extreme genomic degeneracy o...