Gordon M. Bennett

This study examines intrahost genetic variation in endosymbionts, finding lineage-specific mutational dynamics that mirror long-term evolutionary trends.

The paper sequenced and analyzed the genomes of two endosymbiotic bacteria in planthoppers, revealing independent evolutionary origins and genomic rearrangements that challenge previous assumptions about their shared ancestry.

The paper compares mutation rates between two bacterial endosymbionts in sap-feeding insects, finding that differential mutagenesis drives differences in genome conservation.