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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2003, p. 6825-6832, Vol. 69, No. 11
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.11.6825-6832.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparative Genomics of Insect-Symbiotic Bacteria: Influence of Host Environment on Microbial Genome Composition

Rita V. M. Rio,1 Cedric Lefevre,2 Abdelaziz Heddi,2 and Serap Aksoy1*

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510,1 UMR INRA/INSA de Lyon—Biologie Fonctionnelle, Insectes et Interactions, 69621 Villeurbanne Cedex, France2

Received 8 April 2003/ Accepted 6 August 2003

Commensal symbionts, thought to be intermediary amid obligate mutualists and facultative parasites, offer insight into forces driving the evolutionary transition into mutualism. Using macroarrays developed for a close relative, Escherichia coli, we utilized a heterologous array hybridization approach to infer the genomic compositions of a clade of bacteria that have recently established symbiotic associations: Sodalis glossinidius with the tsetse fly (Diptera, Glossina spp.) and Sitophilus oryzae primary endosymbiont (SOPE) with the rice weevil (Coleoptera, Sitophilus oryzae). Functional biologies within their hosts currently reflect different forms of symbiotic associations. Their hosts, members of distant insect taxa, occupy distinct ecological niches and have evolved to survive on restricted diets of blood for tsetse and cereal for the rice weevil. Comparison of genome contents between the two microbes indicates statistically significant differences in the retention of genes involved in carbon compound catabolism, energy metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, and transport. The greatest reductions have occurred in carbon catabolism, membrane proteins, and cell structure-related genes for Sodalis and in genes involved in cellular processes (i.e., adaptations towards cellular conditions) for SOPE. Modifications in metabolic pathways, in the form of functional losses complementing particularities in host physiology and ecology, may have occurred upon initial entry from a free-living to a symbiotic state. It is possible that these adaptations, streamlining genomes, act to make a free-living state no longer feasible for the harnessed microbe.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, 60 College St., 606 LEPH, New Haven, CT 06510. Phone: (203) 737-2180. Fax: (203) 785-4782. E-mail: serap.aksoy{at}yale.edu.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2003, p. 6825-6832, Vol. 69, No. 11
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.11.6825-6832.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Geiger, A., Ravel, S., Mateille, T., Janelle, J., Patrel, D., Cuny, G., Frutos, R. (2007). Vector Competence of Glossina palpalis gambiensis for Trypanosoma brucei s.l. and Genetic Diversity of the Symbiont Sodalis glossinidius. Mol Biol Evol 24: 102-109 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Weiss, B. L., Mouchotte, R., Rio, R. V. M., Wu, Y.-n., Wu, Z., Heddi, A., Aksoy, S. (2006). Interspecific Transfer of Bacterial Endosymbionts between Tsetse Fly Species: Infection Establishment and Effect on Host Fitness. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 7013-7021 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Geiger, A., Cuny, G., Frutos, R. (2005). Two Tsetse Fly Species, Glossina palpalis gambiensis and Glossina morsitans morsitans, Carry Genetically Distinct Populations of the Secondary Symbiont Sodalis glossinidius. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71: 8941-8943 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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