Physical and Genetic Map of the Genome of Buchnera, the Primary Endosymbiont of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

Abstract The genome of Buchnera, an endosymbiotic bacterium of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum, was characterized by pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) as a circular DNA molecule of 657 kb. The enzymes I-CeuI, CpoI, ApaI, SmaI, NaeI, SacII, MluI, FspI, and NruI were used to cleave the DNA of Buchnera into fragments of suitable size for PFGE analysis. A physical map of the Buchnera genome, including restriction fragments from seven of these enzymes, was constructed using double cutting, partial digestion, and hybridization with linking fragments, and 29 genes and operons were localized on the map. In addition, the genomic map of Buchnera was compared with those of Escherichia coli and Haemophilus influenzae. The gene order in Buchnera is more similar to that of E. coli than to H. influenzae. The dramatic shrinkage of the Buchnera genome compared with those of other members of the closely related Enterobacteriaceae family is discussed in terms of evolution under the influence of the intracellular symbiotic association. Received: 20 May 1998 / Accepted: 1 July 1998