Search results for "BIOS"

Ancient symbiosis confers desiccation resistance to stored grain pest beetles

2017

AbstractMicrobial symbionts of insects provide a range of ecological traits to their hosts that are beneficial in the context of biotic interactions. However, little is known about insect symbiont-mediated adaptation to the abiotic environment, e.g. temperature and humidity. Here we report on an ancient (~400 Mya) clade of intracellular, bacteriome-located Bacteroidetes symbionts that are associated withgrain and wood pest beetles of the phylogenetically distant families Silvanidae and Bostrichidae. In the saw-toothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis, we demonstrate that the symbionts affect cuticle thickness, melanization and hydrocarbon profile, enhancing desiccation resistance and …

Angiosperm to Gymnosperm host-plant switch entails shifts in microbiota of the Welwitschia bug, Probergrothius angolensis (Distant, 1902).

2019

The adaptation of herbivorous insects to new host plants is key to their evolutionary success in diverse environments. Many insects are associated with mutualistic gut bacteria that contribute to the host's nutrition and can thereby facilitate dietary switching in polyphagous insects. However, how gut microbial communities differ between populations of the same species that feed on different host plants remains poorly understood. Most species of Pyrrhocoridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) are specialist seed-feeders on plants in the family Malvaceae, although populations of one species, Probergrothius angolensis, have switched to the very distantly related Welwitschia mirabilis plant in the Nami…

New Insights on the Evolutionary History of Aphids and Their Primary Endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola

2011

Since the establishment of the symbiosis between the ancestor of modern aphids and their primary endosymbiont,Buchnera aphidicola, insects and bacteria have coevolved. Due to this parallel evolution, the analysis of bacterial genomic features constitutes a useful tool to understand their evolutionary history. Here we report, based on data fromB. aphidicola, the molecular evolutionary analysis, the phylogenetic relationships among lineages and a comparison of sequence evolutionary rates of symbionts of four aphid species from three subfamilies. Our results support previous hypotheses of divergence ofB. aphidicolaand their host lineages during the early Cretaceous and indicate a closer relati…

Plants and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: Cues and Communication in the Early Steps of Symbiotic Interactions

2007

Abstract The ubiquitous nature of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) pleads for common molecular and genetic determinants across different plant taxa. The cellular processes determining compatibility in early interactions prior to and during cell contact between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots are starting to be unraveled. The root epidermis is an active checkpoint where signal exchanges and control over root colonization occur. Root‐secreted flavonoids, flavonols, and strigolactones can act as rhizosphere signals in stimulating presymbiotic fungal growth, although their mechanism of action on the fungal cell is as yet unknown. Likewise, fungal signals (Myc factors) activate early plan…

Next-generation cophylogeny: unravelling eco-evolutionary processes

2021

A fundamental question in evolutionary biology is how microevolutionary processes translate into species diversification. Cophylogeny provides an appropriate framework to address this for symbiotic associations, but historically has been primarily limited to unveiling patterns. We argue that it is essential to integrate advances from ecology and evolutionary biology into cophylogeny, to gain greater mechanistic insights and transform cophylogeny into a platform to advance understanding of interspecific interactions and diversification more widely. We discuss key directions, such as incorporating trait reconstruction and considering multiple scales of network organization, and highlight rece…

2014

The Vipp1 protein is essential in cyanobacteria and chloroplasts for the maintenance of photosynthetic function and thylakoid membrane architecture. To investigate its mode of action we generated strains of the cyanobacteria Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 and Synechococcus sp. PCC7942 in which Vipp1 was tagged with green fluorescent protein at the C-terminus and expressed from the native chromosomal locus. There was little perturbation of function. Live-cell fluorescence imaging shows dramatic relocalisation of Vipp1 under high light. Under low light, Vipp1 is predominantly dispersed in the cytoplasm with occasional concentrations at the outer periphery of the thylakoid membranes. High light ind…

Genomics of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

2004

International audience

Mechanisms of Defence to Pathogens : Biochemistry and Physiology

2014

SPE IPM; International audience; Plant defences comprise both pre-existing barriers as well as defences induced upon perception of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) or molecules produced from damage as a result of infection (damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs)). This chapter focuses on the induced mechanisms of defence. The inducibility of phytoalexin biosynthesis has probably been favoured in the course of evolution by biological constraints such as metabolic costs and functional side-effects associated with chemical defence. Historically, the term ‘hypersensitive’ refers to the rapid and localized cell death induced in…

2020

Animals engage in a plethora of mutualistic interactions with microorganisms that can confer various benefits to their host but can also incur context-dependent costs. The sawtoothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis harbors nutritional, intracellular Bacteroidetes bacteria that supplement precursors for the cuticle synthesis and thereby enhance desiccation resistance of its host. Experimental elimination of the symbiont impairs cuticle formation and reduces fitness under desiccation stress but does not disrupt the host’s life cycle. For this study, we first demonstrated that symbiont populations showed the strongest growth at the end of metamorphosis and then declined continuously in …

Arbuscular mycorrhiza induced ATPases and membrane nutrient transport mechanisms

2002

The evolutionary success of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis reflects the unique combination of a superior biotrophic mode of fungal carbon acquisition and the ability of the living plant to absorb nutrients, especially phosphorus, from the fungal partner (Jakobsen 1999). This mutualistic way of life must require controlled expression of a large set of membrane transport systems active in phosphate uptake from the soil by the extraradical hyphae, its transfer to the host plant across a symbiotic interface, and coupled to transport of photosynthates in the opposite direction. The implied membrane transporters are therefore integral systems in the functioning of the symbiosis. Very littl…