Open Access
How to translate text using browser tools
1 July 2009 Huge Symbiotic Organs in Giant Scale Insects of the Genus Drosicha (Coccoidea: Monophlebidae) Harbor Flavobacterial and Enterobacterial Endosymbionts
Yu Matsuura, Ryuichi Koga, Naruo Nikoh, Xian-Ying Meng, Satoshi Hanada, Takema Fukatsu
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Giant scale insects (Drosicha: Coccoidea: Monophlebidae) were investigated for their symbiotic organs and bacterial endosymbionts. Two types of bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences, flavobacterial and enterobacterial, were consistently detected in D. corpulenta and D. pinicola. The former sequences formed a compact clade in the Bacteroidetes, allied to the symbionts of cushion and armored scales. The latter sequences formed a robust clade in the γ-Proteobacteria, allied to enteric bacteria like Enterobacter aerogenes and Escherichia coli. Another type of 16S sequence derived from Wolbachia was also detected in D. pinicola. In-situ hybridization demonstrated that the flavobacterial and enterobacterial symbionts were localized in a pair of huge bacteriomes in the abdomen, the former in uninucleated peripheral bacteriocytes and the latter in syncytial central bacteriocytes. Electron microscopy confirmed the endocellular locations of the pleomorphic flavobacterial symbiont and the rod-shaped enterobacterial symbiont, and also revealed the location and fine structure of the Wolbachia symbiont in D. pinicola. Infection frequencies of the flavobacterial and enterobacterial symbionts were consistently 100% in populations of D. corpulenta and D. pinicola, while the Wolbachia symbiont exhibited 0% and 100% infection frequencies in D. corpulenta and D. pinicola, respectively. Neither the flavobacterial symbiont nor the enterobacterial symbiont exhibited AT-biased nucleotide composition or accelerated molecular evolution. The huge bacteriomes of Drosicha giant scales would provide a useful system for investigating biochemical, physiological, and genomic aspects of the host-symbiont and symbiont-symbiont interactions.

© 2009 Zoological Society of Japan
Yu Matsuura, Ryuichi Koga, Naruo Nikoh, Xian-Ying Meng, Satoshi Hanada, and Takema Fukatsu "Huge Symbiotic Organs in Giant Scale Insects of the Genus Drosicha (Coccoidea: Monophlebidae) Harbor Flavobacterial and Enterobacterial Endosymbionts," Zoological Science 26(7), 448-456, (1 July 2009). https://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.26.448
Received: 8 April 2009; Accepted: 1 April 2009; Published: 1 July 2009
KEYWORDS
bacteriocyte
bacteriome
Drosicha
endosymbiont
evolution
giant scale
symbiotic system
Back to Top