Novymonas esmeraldas is a protist and member of Flagellum . It is an obligate parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of a bug, and is in turn a host to Symbiosis bacteria. It maintains strict mutualistic relationship with the bacteria as a sort of cell organelle (endosymbiont) so that it cannot lead an independent life without the bacteria.
Discovery
Novymonas esmeraldas was discovered from a bug,
Niesthrea vincentii, from Ecuador. The bug was collected in July 2008 near Atacames in Esmeraldas Province, hence, the protist bears the species name. The genus name is after Frederick George Novy, an American bacteriologist and parasitologist who pioneered studies of insect trypanosomatids,
and described in 1907 the first known symbiont-harbouring trypanosomatid, later named
Strigomonas culicis.
Biology
Protist
Novymonas esmeraldas spends it life cycle in the intestine (hindgut) of the bug,
Niesthrea vincentii. During its life cycle it exists in two morphological forms, free-swimming promastigote and sedentary choanomastigote. Promastigotes are elongated and measure about 10.9 to 18 μm in length and about 1.3 to 4.8 μm in width. They bear a single flagellum in front that is 7.8 to 19.5 μm long. Choanomastigotes are more spherical in shape measuring 4.5 to 9.7 μm long and 2.8 to 6.4 μm wide. The flagellum is longer measuring 8.6 and 20.4 μm. The nucleus is centrally located, and in front of it is the
kinetoplast. The kinetoplast is arranged in a compact disk which measures between 553 and 938 nm in diameter and 114 to 213 nm in cross section.
Bacterium
The endosymbiont is a bacterium classified as (
Candidatus) Pandoraea novymonadis that belongs to Gram-negative rod-shaped β-proteobacteria in the family
Burkholderiaceae. Unlike in other symbiont-harbouring trypanosomatids such as
Strigonomas culicis,
Kentomonas sorsogonicus, and
Angomonas deanei, the division of the endosymbiont is not synchronized with the host.
Novymonas cells can bear a different number of the endosymbionts, and some do not have the bacteria at all. This indicates that the symbiosis in
Novymonas is more recent than in the case of the other endosymbiont-bearing trypanosomatids. However, in contrast to its related free-living bacteria,
P. novymonadis has highly reduced genome, less genes and lower
GC-content.
