Journal
CELL
Volume 179, Issue 3, Pages 703-+Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.054
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Funding
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [GBMF5602]
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration Astrobiology Institute [NNA15BB04A]
- National Science Foundation [IOS-1553529]
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/N000951/1, 2058718]
- BBSRC [2058718, BB/N000951/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- MRC [MR/S009272/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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Peptidoglycan (PG) is a defining feature of bacteria, involved in cell division, shape, and integrity. We previously reported that several genes related to PG biosynthesis were horizontally transferred from bacteria to the nuclear genome of mealybugs. Mealy-bugs are notable for containing a nested bacteria-within-bacterium endosymbiotic structure in specialized insect cells, where one bacterium, Moranella, lives in the cytoplasm of another bacterium, Tremblaya. Here we show that horizontally transferred genes on the mealybug genome work together with genes retained on the Moranella genome to produce a PG layer exclusively at the Moranella cell periphery. Furthermore, we show that an insect protein encoded by a horizontally transferred gene of bacterial origin is transported into the Moranella cytoplasm. These results provide a striking parallel to the genetic and biochemical mosaicism found in organelles, and prove that multiple horizontally transferred genes can become integrated into a functional pathway distributed between animal and bacterial endosymbiont genomes.
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