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APHID ENDOSYMBIONT. "Bacteriocyte expression of genes underlying amino acid metabolism complements Buchnera pathways for amino acid biosynthesis, reflecting extensive host–symbiont collaboration in this central nutritional function. Certain aphid genes seem to function solely in controlling or supporting Buchnera." https://lnkd.in/dcBwzRs View in LinkedIn

DEEP LINK. "The tight coupling between the earliest stages of viral and cellular evolution." https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn

SPECIAL PACKAGING. "Reflecting their reliance on symbionts, hosts have evolved specialized mechanisms and tissues for housing and supporting symbionts and for transferring them from mother to progeny. In aphids, cells that are specified to become bacteriocytes show distinctive gene expression in early developmental stages, and their cellular fate is determined before Buchnera colonization." https://lnkd.in/dcBwzRs View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this contemplation of inheritance of symbionts, the loss of the biological individual, and the idea that we are genetic mosaics of many species, and the seemingly outlandish idea that the permanent cellular powerhouses (the mitochondria and chloroplast), could have come about by engulfment of a foreign species, is made more credible by the universal symbiosis between species, genetic streamlining and metabolic outsourcing. View in LinkedIn

WITHDRAWAL CRASH. "Aphid females deprived of Buchnera, due to heat, antibiotics, or old age, produce few or no progeny, even when dietary nutrition is sufficient. This dependence on Buchnera for development reflects 150 million years of fixation of aphid mutations that are beneficial or neutral in the presence of Buchnera but potentially deleterious in its absence." https://lnkd.in/dcBwzRs View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT MATERNAL INHERITANCE. "The presence of maternal transmission at the base of the Animalia kingdom and the surprising plasticity by which microbes gain access to germ cells or embryos in these systems signifies that maternal symbiont transmission is an ancient and evolutionarily advantageous mechanism inherent in animals, including humans." https://lnkd.in/ds5gpCY View in LinkedIn

ABSOLUTE ADDICTION. "The continuous presence of a vertically transmitted symbiont leads to the evolution of developmental dependence beyond the symbiont’s original contribution; that is, hosts become addicted to their symbionts. In aphids, elimination of Buchnera through antibiotic treatment interferes with development, which typically stalls if Buchnera fails to colonize." https://lnkd.in/dcBwzRs View in LinkedIn

WIDESPREAD. "Maternal provisioning of microbes to developing offspring is widespread in animals, with evidence of internal microbial transmission in animal phyla as diverse as Porifera, Mollusca, Arthropoda, and Chordata." https://lnkd.in/ds5gpCY View in LinkedIn

NEW THINKING. "This collective knowledge compels a paradigm shift—one in which maternal transmission of microbes advances from a taxonomically specialized phenomenon to a universal one in animals." https://lnkd.in/ds5gpCY View in LinkedIn

"THE STERILE WOMB PARADIGM is an enduring premise in biology that human infants are born sterile. Recent studies suggest that infants incorporate an initial microbiome before birth and receive copious supplementation of maternal microbes through birth and breastfeeding. Moreover, evidence for microbial maternal transmission is increasingly widespread across animals." https://lnkd.in/ds5gpCY View in LinkedIn