Glassy-Winged Sharpshooters Depend on Two Endosymbionts

The fruit of the vine does not suffice for the voracious glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect pest and vector of diseases that feeds on grapevines, citrus, and other plant species. Remarkably, this insect also very much depends on not one, but two bacterial endosymbionts—one supplying amino acids and the other, vitamins—to sustain itself, according to Jonathan Eisen of the University of California, Davis, and his collaborators, who report their findings in the June PLoS Biology.