National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)

Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo

Japan Science and Technology Agency

Summary

Dr. Ryuichi Koga, Research Group Director, Dr. Minoru Moriyama, Senior Staff, Dr. Takema Fukatsu, Senior Staff, and ERATO Fukatsu Symbiosis Evolutionary Mechanisms Project, Bioprocess Research Division, National Institute of Science and Technology (AIST), National University of Tokyo, Dr. Riki Koga, Director, Dr. Minoru Moriyama, Senior Staff, Dr. Takema Fukatsu, Director, and Dr. Fukatsu, Director of the Institute of Engineering Innovation Research Projects, National University of Tokyo, and other researchers. Professor Chikara Furusawa, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, and Professor Yuichi Wakamoto, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, have been studying the effects of the removal of symbiotic bacteria from the symbioticbug, which cannot live without them, and instead infecting it with fast evolving E. coli and maintaining it continuously in the laboratory, in a short period of time ranging from several months to one year, on the development of a single mutation in a broad transcriptional We have shown that E. coli can evolve into an essential symbiont that supports the survival of the host stink bug by a single mutation inthe regulatory system in a short period of time, from a few months to a year.

This study demonstrates that the evolution of symbiotic microorganisms essential for host survival can occur more rapidly and easily than previously thought. The ability to evolve E. coli, the most studied model bacterium in molecular biology, into a symbiotic bacterium is groundbreaking. The use of this insect-E. coli experimental symbiotic evolutionary system is expected to greatly advance our understanding of the process and mechanism of symbiotic evolution in the future.

The research results were published online in the international journal Nature Microbiology on August4, 2022 (British Summer Time).

Figure: E. coli before and after symbiotic evolution and adult chrysomelid beetles infected by them

Pre-evolutionary E. coli are elongated, the hatching rate of infected bugs is low, and their bodies are small and brown (left); post-evolutionary E. coli are shorter, the hatching rate of infected bugs is improved, and their bodies are larger and green (right).

For more information, please visit the websites of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at The University of Tokyo and the Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST ).