Abstract
Mitochondria and plastids evolved more than one billion years ago from
bacterial endosymbionts. Besides these organelles, there is a large diversity
of more recently acquired bacterial endosymbionts that provide their
hosts with diverse metabolic functions. We use the protists Paulinella
chromatophora and Angomonas deanei as model systems to study the
molecular mechanisms underpinning endosymbiotic interactions and the
transformation of a bacterial endosymbiont into a genetically integrated
organelle.