English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Diverse animals, including insects, harbor microbial symbionts within their gut, body cavity, or cells. The subsocial parastrachiid stinkbug  Parastrachia japonensis  is well-known for its peculiar ecological and behavioral traits, including its prolonged non-feeding diapause period and maternal care of eggs/nymphs in an underground nest.  P. japonensis  harbors a specific bacterial symbiont within the gut cavity extracellularly, which is vertically inherited through maternal excretion of symbiont-containing white mucus. Thus far, biological roles of the symbiont in the host lifecycle has been little understood. Here we sequenced the genome of the uncultivable gut symbiont “ Candidatus  Benitsuchiphilus tojoi.” The symbiont has an 804 kb circular chromosome encoding 606 proteins and a 14.5 kb plasmid encoding 13 proteins. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the bacterium is closely related to other obligate insect symbionts belonging to the Gammaproteobacteria, including  Buchnera  of aphids and  Blochmannia  of ants, and the most closely related to  Ishikawaella , an extracellular gut symbiont of plataspid stinkbugs. These data suggested that the symbiont genome has evolved like highly reduced gamma-proteobacterial symbiont genomes reported from a variety of insects. The presence of genes involved in biosynthesis pathways for amino acids, vitamins, and cofactors in the genome implicated the symbiont as a nutritional mutualist, supplementing essential nutrients to the host. Interestingly, the symbiont’s plasmid encoded genes for thiamine and carotenoid synthesis pathways, suggesting the possibility of additional functions of the symbiont for protecting the host against oxidative stress and DNA damage. Finally, possible involvement of the symbiont in uric acid metabolism during diapause is discussed.

frontiers in microbiology

Reduced Genome of the Gut Symbiotic Bacterium “Candidatus Benitsuchiphilus tojoi” Provides Insight Into Its Possible Roles in Ecology and Adaptation of the Host Insect