Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
© 2004 Jennifer J. Wernegreen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The definitive version was published in PLoS Biology 2 (2004): e68, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020068.
Description:
Symbiosis, an interdependent
relationship between two
species, is an important driver
of evolutionary novelty and ecological
diversity. Microbial symbionts
in particular have been major
evolutionary catalysts throughout the
4 billion years of life on earth and
have largely shaped the evolution of
complex organisms. Endosymbiosis is
a specifi c type of symbiosis in which
one—typically microbial—partner
lives within its host and represents
the most intimate contact between
interacting organisms. Mitochondria
and chloroplasts, for example, result
from endosymbiotic events of lasting
significance that extended the range
of acceptable habitats for life. The
wide distribution of intracellular
bacteria across diverse hosts and marine and terrestrial habitats testifies
to the continued importance of
endosymbiosis in evolution.
Among multicellular organisms,
insects as a group form exceptionally
diverse associations with microbial
associates, including bacteria that
live exclusively within host cells and
undergo maternal transmission to
offspring. These microbes have piqued
the interest of evolutionary biologists
because they represent a wide spectrum
of evolutionary strategies, ranging from
obligate mutualism to reproductive
parasitism (Buchner 1965; Ishikawa
2003) (Box 1; Table 1).
Description:
JJW gratefully acknowledges the support
of the National Institutes of Health (R01
GM62626-01), the National Science
Foundation (DEB 0089455), the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
Astrobiology Institute (NNA04CC04A), and
the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul
Foundation.
Keywords:
Endosymbiosis
;
Endosymbiosis manipulation
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
541080 bytes
Format:
application/pdf
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