TY - JOUR
T1 - Culture and manipulation of insect facultative symbionts
AU - Pontes, Mauricio Henriques
AU - Dale, Colin
N1 - Funding Information:
Research in our laboratory is supported by a National Science Foundation award EF-0523818 to C.D. We thank Nancy Moran for kindly providing the photographs used in Figure 1 .
PY - 2006/9
Y1 - 2006/9
N2 - Insects from many different taxonomic groups harbor maternally transmitted bacterial symbionts. Some of these associations are ancient in origin and obligate in nature whereas others originated more recently and are facultative. Previous research focused on the biology of ancient obligate symbionts with essential nutritional roles in their insect hosts. However, recent important advances in understanding the biology of facultative associations have been driven by the development of techniques for the culture, genetic modification and manipulation of facultative symbionts. In this review, we examine these available experimental techniques and illustrate how they have provided fascinating new insight into the nature of associations involving facultative symbionts. We also propose a rationale for future research based on the integration of genomics and experimentation.
AB - Insects from many different taxonomic groups harbor maternally transmitted bacterial symbionts. Some of these associations are ancient in origin and obligate in nature whereas others originated more recently and are facultative. Previous research focused on the biology of ancient obligate symbionts with essential nutritional roles in their insect hosts. However, recent important advances in understanding the biology of facultative associations have been driven by the development of techniques for the culture, genetic modification and manipulation of facultative symbionts. In this review, we examine these available experimental techniques and illustrate how they have provided fascinating new insight into the nature of associations involving facultative symbionts. We also propose a rationale for future research based on the integration of genomics and experimentation.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.tim.2006.07.004
DO - 10.1016/j.tim.2006.07.004
M3 - Review article
C2 - 16875825
AN - SCOPUS:33747152862
SN - 0966-842X
VL - 14
SP - 406
EP - 412
JO - Trends in Microbiology
JF - Trends in Microbiology
IS - 9
ER -
