![]() This allows the bodies to be desecrated more reliably.Symbiotic bacteria are vital to the function of most living eukaryotes, including microeukaryotes, fungi, plants, and animals 1, 2, 3, 4. The symbioses formed are often functionally important to the host with effects ranging from mutualistic to detrimental. Mutualistic symbionts may provide benefits through the biosynthesis of metabolites, or by protecting their hosts against pathogens and parasitoids 5, 6. Parasitic symbionts can be detrimental to the host due to resource exploitation or through reproductive manipulation that favours its own transmission over the host’s 7, 8. Across these different symbiotic relationships, symbionts are often important determinants of host ecology and evolution. The Rickettsiales (Alphaproteobacteria) represent an order of largely obligate intracellular bacteria that form symbioses with a variety of eukaryotes 9. Deianiraea, an extracellular parasite of Paramecium, is the one known exception 10. ![]() Within Rickettsiales, the family Rickettsiaceae represent a diverse collection of bacteria that infect a wide range of eukaryotic hosts and can act as symbionts, parasites, and pathogens. Perhaps the best-known clade of Rickettsiaceae is the genus Rickettsia, which was initially described as the cause of spotted fever and other rickettsioses in vertebrates that are transmitted by ticks, lice, fleas, and mites 11. Rickettsia have been increasingly recognised as heritable arthropod symbionts. Since the description of a maternally inherited male-killer in ladybirds 12, we now know that heritable Rickettsia are common in arthropods 13, 14.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |