Development of a toolbox to dissect host-endosymbiont interactions and protein trafficking in the trypanosomatid Angomonas deanei

Background: Bacterial endosymbionts are found across the eukaryotic kingdom and profoundly impacted eukaryote evolution. In many endosymbiotic associations with vertically inherited symbionts, highly complementary metabolic functions encoded by host and endosymbiont genomes indicate integration of metabolic processes between the partner organisms. While endosymbionts were initially expected to exchange only metabolites with their hosts, recent evidence has demonstrated that also host-encoded proteins can be targeted to the bacterial symbionts in various endosymbiotic systems. These proteins seem to participate in regulating symbiont growth and physiology. However, mechanisms required for protein targeting and the specific endosymbiont targets of these trafficked proteins are currently unexplored owing to a lack of molecular tools that enable functional studies of endosymbiotic systems.