cytoplasm of specialized cells called bacteriocytes. These bacteria
are passed from mother to eggs during oogenesis in sexual forms
and directly to developing embryos during embryogenesis of
asexual morphs [48].
Although this sequencing project was designed to target
the genome of A. pisum, the project also generated sequences of
the primary symbiotic bacteria, Buchnera aphidicola APS. We
obtained 24,947 sequence reads corresponding to ,206
coverage of the Buchneragenome. Assembly of this sequence
and PCR-based gap closure allowed reconstruction of the
complete 642,011-base-pair genome of Buchnera (Genbank
Accession ACFK00000000). Compared with the first sequenced
strain from Japan [10], the new strain (from North America)
shows approximately 1,500 mismatches (0.23%) and two larger
inserts (1.2 kbp and 150 bp). The newly sequenced strain is
almost 100% identical to a cluster of five recently sequenced
Buchnerastrains from pea aphids collected in North America
(CP001161; [49])