Winding paths to simplicity: genome evolution in facultative insect symbionts.

Wen-Sui Lo1,2,3, Ya-Yi Huang1, Chih-Horng Kuo1,2,3

  • 1Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.

FEMS Microbiology Reviews
|February 17, 2017
PubMed
Summary

Facultative insect symbionts exhibit diverse genome reduction patterns, challenging the idea of a single evolutionary path to obligate symbiosis. Frequent host and lifestyle shifts are observed, potentially driven by horizontal gene transfer.

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