Ryuichi Koga

The paper studies the evolution of insect-Escherichia coli mutualism by analyzing transcriptional changes in bacterial lineages that improve host performance.

This study shows that engineered Escherichia coli strains can outcompete native Pantoea symbionts in stinkbugs but provide less host fitness benefits, revealing a conflict between colonization success and mutualism.

This study evolves a minimal genome bacterium to grow at a lower temperature, revealing genetic and non-genetic adaptation mechanisms.

The paper shows that disrupting the tryptophanase gene in bacteria enables mutualism with stinkbugs, suggesting this gene loss facilitated the evolution of insect-bacterium mutualism.

The paper identifies a novel defensive fungal symbiosis in stinkbugs where females transfer fungi to eggs to protect them from wasp parasitism.

This paper reports that Blattabacterium, an endosymbiont of cockroaches, exhibits frequent and asymmetric cell division, unlike other uncultivable symbiotic bacteria.

The paper investigates host specificity in symbiotic bacteria by testing artificial and natural E. coli strains in stinkbug species, finding that artificial strains show strict host specificity while natural strains have broader host ranges.