Type III secretion systems and the evolution of mutualistic endosymbiosis

The view that parasites can develop cooperative symbiotic relationships with their hosts is both appealing and widely held; however, there is no molecular genetic evidence of such a transition. Here we demonstrate that a mutualistic bacterial endosymbiont of grain weevils maintains and expresses inv/spa genes encoding a type III secretion system homologous to that used for invasion by bacterial pathogens. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that inv/spa genes were present in presymbiotic ancestors of the weevil endosymbionts, occurring at least 50 million years ago. The function of inv/spa genes in maintaining symbiosis is demonstrated by the up-regulation of their expression under both in vivo and in vitro conditions that coincide with host cell invasion.