Environmental transmission is atypical of symbionts that have undergone genome degradation, yet genetically reduced deep-sea anglerfish symbionts likely persist in the deep sea biome in search of a new host.
The endosymbiosis between an alga and the spotted salamander shows several parallels to invertebrate-algal symbioses as well as to pathogen associations in vertebrate animals.
The capacity for symbiosis between photosynthetic microalgae and early diverging lineages fungi was demonstrated with microscopy and stable isotope exchange of carbon and nitrogen.
The horizontal acquisition of virulence plasmids is potentiated by production practices in plant nurseries and is sufficient to transition Rhodococcus from being beneficial to being pathogenic.
The first genomic view of beetle luciferase evolution indicates evolutionary independence of luciferase between fireflies and click-beetles, and provide valuable datasets which will accelerate the discovery of new biotechnological tools.
Morphological and fitness defects imposed on amoebae hosts by Burkholderia symbionts demonstrates symbiont species-specific effects and provides evidence of host adaptation to naturally acquired symbionts.
Domestication of endosymbiotic Mollicutes may have resolved nitrogen-recycling challenges for attine ants and enabled the evolutionary derived leaf-cutting ants to fully exploit their herbivorous niches.
Skin-associated bacteria underlie the production of a potent defensive neurotoxin in newts, impacting host physiology, molecular evolution, and predator-prey interactions in a coevolutionary arms race.
