Complete genome sequence of "Candidatus Tremblaya princeps" strain PCVAL, an intriguing translational machine below the living-cell status

How does Tremblaya princeps get essential proteins from its nested partner Moranella endobia in the Mealybug Planoccocus citri?

Many insects maintain intracellular mutualistic symbiosis with a wide range of bacteria which are considered essential for their survival (primary or P-endosymbiont) and typically suffer drastic genome degradation. Progressive loss of P-endosymbiont metabolic capabilities could lead to the recruitment of co-existent facultative endosymbiont (secondary or S-endosymbiont), thus adding more complexity to the symbiotic system. Planococcus citri, among other mealybug species, harbors an unconventional nested endosymbiotic system where every Tremblaya princeps cell (β-proteobacterium) harbors many Moranella endobia cells (γ-proteobacterium). In this system, T. princeps possess one of the smallest prokaryote genome known so far. This extreme genome reduction suggests the supply of many metabolites and essential gene products by M. endobia. Although sporadic cell lysis is plausible, the bacterial participation on the regulation of the predicted molecular exchange (at least to some extent) cannot be excluded. Although the comprehensive analysis of the protein translocation ability of M. endobia PCVAL rules out the existence of specific mechanisms for the exportation of proteins from M. endobia to T. princeps, immunolocation of two M. endobia proteins points towards a non-massive but controlled protein provision. We propose a sporadic pattern for the predicted protein exportation events, which could be putatively controlled by the host and/or mediated by local osmotic stress.

Mealybugs with distinct endosymbiotic systems living on the same host plant

Mealybugs (Homoptera: Coccoidea: Pseudococcidae) possess a large bacteriome consisting of a number of bacteriocytes whose cytoplasm is populated by endosymbiotic bacteria. In many mealybugs of the subfamily Pseudococcinae, a peculiar endosymbiotic configuration has been identified: within the bacteriocytes, the primary betaproteobacterial endosymbiont Tremblaya princeps endocellularly harbor secondary gammaproteobacterial endosymbionts in a nested manner. Meanwhile, some mealybugs of the subfamily Phenacoccinae are associated only with a betaproteobacterial endosymbiont, designated as Tremblaya phenacola, which constitutes a distinct sister clade of T. princeps. However, cytological configuration of the endosymbiotic system in the phenacoccine mealybugs has not been established. Here, we investigated the endosymbiotic systems of the azalea mealybugs Crisicoccus azaleae (Pseudococcinae) and Phenacoccus azaleae (Phenacoccinae) living on the same host plants. Crisicoccus azaleae possessed a nested endosymbiotic system with T. princeps within the bacteriocyte cytoplasm and itself endocellularly harboring gammaproteobacterial cells, whereas P. azaleae exhibited a simple endosymbiotic system in which T. phenacola cells are localized within the bacteriocytes without additional gammaproteobacterial associates. Considering that these mealybugs live on the identical plant phloem sap, these different endosymbiotic consortia likely play similar biological roles for their host insects. The findings presented here should be helpful for future functional and comparative genomics toward elucidating evolutionary pathways of mealybugs and their endosymbionts.

Decoding in Candidatus Riesia pediculicola, close to a minimal tRNA modification set?

A comparative genomic analysis of the recently sequenced human body louse unicellular endosymbiont Candidatus Riesia pediculicola with a reduced genome (582 Kb), revealed that it is the only known organism that might have lost all post-transcriptional base and ribose modifications of the tRNA body, retaining only modifications of the anticodon-stem-loop essential for mRNA decoding. Such a minimal tRNA modification set was not observed in other insect symbionts or in parasitic unicellular bacteria, such as Mycoplasma genitalium (580 Kb), that have also evolved by considerably reducing their genomes. This could be an example of a minimal tRNA modification set required for life, a question that has been at the center of the field for many years, especially for understanding the emergence and evolution of the genetic code.

An AT mutational bias in the tiny GC-rich endosymbiont genome of Hodgkinia

The fractional guanine + cytosine (GC) contents of sequenced bacterial genomes range from 13% to 75%. Despite several decades of research aimed at understanding this wide variation, the forces controlling GC content are not well understood. Recent work has suggested that a universal adenine + thymine (AT) mutational bias exists in all bacteria and that the elevated GC contents found in some bacterial genomes is due to genome-wide selection for increased GC content. These results are generally consistent with the low GC contents observed in most strict endosymbiotic bacterial genomes, where the loss of DNA repair mechanisms combined with the population genetic effects of small effective population sizes and decreased recombination should lower the efficacy of selection and shift the equilibrium GC content in the mutationally favored AT direction. Surprisingly, the two smallest bacterial genomes, Candidatus Hodgkinia cicadicola (144 kb) and Candidatus Tremblaya princeps (139 kb), have the unusual combination of highly reduced genomes and elevated GC contents, raising the possibility that these bacteria may be exceptions to the otherwise apparent universal bacterial AT mutational bias. Here, using population genomic data generated from the Hodgkinia genome project, we show that Hodgkinia has a clear AT mutational bias. These results provide further evidence that an AT mutational bias is universal in bacteria, even in strict endosymbionts with elevated genomic GC contents.