Intracellular Bacterial Symbionts of Aphids Possess Many Genomic Copies per Bacterium
- 1 June 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Journal of Molecular Evolution
- Vol. 48 (6) , 717-722
- https://doi.org/10.1007/pl00006516
Abstract
Although Buchnera, the endosymbiotic bacteria of aphids, are close relatives of Escherichia coli, their genome size is only a seventh that of E. coli. In this study, we estimated the genomic copy number of Buchnera by dot-blot hybridization and fluorimetry using a video-intensified microscope photon-counting system and obtained convincing evidence that each cell of these bacteria contains an average of 120 genomic copies. Thus, the Buchnera symbiont, with many copies of a small-sized genome, is reminiscent of cell organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts.Keywords
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