Hawaiian planthopper endosymbionts genome sequencing and assembly

Cixiid planthoppers harbor three obligate endosymbionts (Sulcia, Vidania, and Purcelliella) that contribute to their essential nutrition provisioning. Current knowledge of cixiid endosymbionts is lacking information on how selection pressures on symbiont functional genes might vary between planthopper host species and thus impact functional roles of symbionts. In this study, we find that selection pressures on symbiont genes do vary between two species of surface and cave-adapted Hawaiian planthoppers, as well as within an individual cave-adapted host species. We also see that functional gene retention varies between Purcelliella genomes between and within individual host species. These findings indicate that coevolution between planthopper host and endosymbiont is associated with variation in selection on symbiont genes, which has ultimately resulted in variation in functional roles between symbionts with different host species.