Biology
June 2015
BY justin tram
How Mutations Affect the Symbiosis in Cicadas
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Cicadas are reliant on bacteria in their stomach to survive because cicadas cannot gain the nutrients they need to survive purely from pure sap. This is a very symbiotic relationship. As the cicada gives food and shelter to the bacteria, the bacteria produces the essential acids necessary for life that cannot be found in a diet of tree sap. John McCutcheon, of University of Montana, studies the change in evolution over time in these cicadas, particularly in response to the mutation of some of the symbiotic bacteria.
In the study of one symbiotic bacteria, Hodgkinia, it was determined that that has the smallest collection of genes ever found on a multicellular organism. It is however, even more significant in its DNA structure. The bacteria's DNA has