Marleny García-Lozano, Christine Henzler, Miguel Ángel González Porras, Inès Pons, Aileen Berasategui, Christa Lanz, Heike Budde, Kohei Oguchi, Yu Matsuura, Yannick Pauchet, Shana Goffredi, Takema Fukatsu, Donald Windsor, Hassan Salem
Timing the acquisition of a beneficial microbe relative to the evolutionary history of its host can shed light on the adaptive impact of a partnership. Here, we investigated the onset and molecular evolution of an obligate symbiosis between Cassidinae leaf beetles and Candidatus Stammera capleta, a γ-proteobacterium. Residing extracellularly within foregut symbiotic organs, Stammera upgrades the digestive physiology of its host by supplementing plant cell wall-degrading enzymes. We observe that Stammera is a shared symbiont across tortoise and hispine beetles that collectively comprise the Cassidinae subfamily, despite differences in their folivorous habits...
February 13, 2024: Current Biology: CB