John P. McCutcheon

This study shows that features of mitochondrial ribosomes are also present in an ancient insect endosymbiont, suggesting these changes stem from endosymbiont ancestry rather than mitochondrial uniqueness.

The paper identifies extensive membrane contact sites between the mealybug endosymbiont Tremblaya and host mitochondria, suggesting these interactions provide essential membrane and metabolic components.

The paper measures transcript and protein abundance in bacterial endosymbionts to understand how they manage pseudogenes, finding that pseudogenes are transcribed but rarely produce proteins, and that tmRNA may target them for degradation.

The paper identifies mirror tRNA pairs produced from opposite strands of the same locus, demonstrating a novel mechanism for maintaining tRNA diversity in mitochondrial genomes.

The paper investigates how paternal genome elimination in citrus mealybugs affects molecular evolution, finding faster evolution in female-biased genes and more adaptation in male-biased genes.

The paper identifies a mealybug with three endosymbionts, one contributing only two genes to produce a single essential nutrient, chorismate, highlighting extreme genome reduction in endosymbionts.

Pseudofinder identifies pseudogenes in prokaryotic genomes, detecting both degraded and newly formed pseudogenes, as well as genes under relaxed selection.

The paper compares carbohydrate-degrading enzyme gene inventories in lichen fungal symbionts and non-symbiont fungi, finding that lichen symbionts retain these genes despite lower numbers, suggesting functional diversity and potential for external carbon sources.

The paper shows lichen fungi retain a nuclear copy of the ATP9 gene, indicating they produce their own ATP despite lacking the mitochondrial version.