Dalton J. Leprich

A bacterial endosymbiont with a highly reduced genome forms extensive membrane contact sites with host organelles

Bacterial endosymbionts that establish long-term associations inside of host cells often lose a huge number of genes and become dependent on their hosts for essential cellular functions1,2. One such example is the mealybug endosymbiont Tremblaya princeps: its ~139-kb genome encodes only ~120 protein coding genes and la...