An Earliest Endosymbiont, sp. nov., Strain PL13 from the Bed Bug (), Type Strain of a New Supergroup T.

The symbiotic are the most sophisticated mutualistic bacterium among all insect-associated microbiota. -insect relationship fluctuates from the simple facultative/parasitic to an obligate nutritional-mutualistic association as it was the case of the bedbug- from . Understanding this association may help in the control of associated arthropods. Genomic data have proven to be reliable tools in resolving some aspects of these symbiotic associations. Although, appear to be fastidious or uncultivated bacteria which strongly limited their study. Here we proposed S2 cell line for the isolation and culture model to study strains. We therefore isolated and characterized a novel strain associated with the bedbug , designated as strain PL13, and proposed sp. nov. strain -PL13 a type strain of this new species from new supergroup T. Phylogenetically, T-supergroup was close to F and S-supergroups from insects and D-supergroup from filarial nematodes. We determined the 1,291,339-bp genome of -PL13, which was the smallest insect-associated genomes. Overall, the genome shared 50% of protein coding genes with the other insect-associated facultative strains. These findings highlight the diversity of genotypes as well as the -host relationship among Cimicinae subfamily. The provides folate and riboflavin vitamins on which the host depends, while the bacteria had a limited translation mechanism suggesting its strong dependence to its hosts. However, the clear-cut distinction between mutualism and parasitism of the in . cannot be yet ruled out.