Symbionts with eroded genomes adjust gene expression according to host life-stage and environment

Symbiotic bacteria in long-term host associations frequently undergo extreme genome reduction. While they retain genes beneficial to the host, their repertoire of transcription factors is severely reduced. Here, we assessed whether genome-eroded symbionts can still regulate gene expression by characterizing the transcriptional responses of obligate symbionts in reed beetles to different temperatures and host life stages. These symbionts feature a small genome (~0.5 Mb), encoding for 9-10 essential amino acid biosynthesis pathways, 0-2 pectinases, and 4-5 transcription factors. We found that the symbionts respond to winter conditions by upregulating a heat-shock sigma factor and downregulating translation machinery. Across life stages, symbionts adjusted gene expression to meet the hosts' nutritional demands, upregulating amino acid biosynthesis in larvae, while expression and activity of host and symbiont enzymes involved in plant cell wall breakdown increased in the folivorous adults. In addition, the regulation of symbiont cell morphology genes corresponded to cell shape differences across life stages. Thus, reed beetle symbionts may use their few transcription factors to respond to the host's environment, highlighting the regulatory potential of long-term coevolved symbionts despite severely reduced genomes.