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 functions. One such example is the mealybug endosymbiont Tremblaya princeps: its ~139-kb genome encodes only ~120 protein coding genes and lacks all recognizable genes for lipid and fatty acid synthesis, cell wall…
We haven't written up this one. bioRxiv has the full story — the link below goes straight to it.
