The Symbiotic Bacterium Fuels the Energy Metabolism of the Host Trypanosomatid Strigomonas culicis.

The mutualistic relationship between trypanosomatids and their respective endosymbiotic bacteria represents an excellent model for studying metabolic co-evolution since the symbiont completes essential biosynthetic routes of the host cell. In this work, we investigated the influence of the endosymbiont on the energy metabolism of Strigomonas culicis by comparing the wild strain with aposymbiotic protists. The bacterium maintains a frequent and close association with glycosomes, which are distributed around the prokaryote. Furthermore, 3D reconstructions revealed that the shape and distribution of glycosomes are different in symbiont-bearing protists compared to symbiont-free cells. Results of bioenergetic assays showed that the presence of the symbiont enhances the O2 consumption of the host cell. When the quantity of intracellular or released glycerol was evaluated, the aposymbiotic strain presented higher values when compared to symbiont-containing cells. Furthermore, inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation by potassium cyanide increased the rate of glycerol release and slightly diminished the ATP content in cells without the symbiont, indicating that the host trypanosomatid enhances its fermentative activity when the bacterium is lost.