Mastaneh Ahrar

Abstract Obligate symbioses are common in nature and present a particular challenge for functional genetic analysis. In many cases, the host is a non-model species with poor tools for genetic manipulation and the symbiont cannot be cultured or its gene expression manipulated to investigate function. Here we investigated the potential for using antisense inhibition to analyse host and symbiont gene function within an obligate aquatic symbiosis.

1 Introduction Dependent symbioses—where a host requires a symbiont for function—are common in nature. They also present therapeutic opportunities in some cases, as in filarial diseases, where targeting of the symbiont enables sterilization of the host and ultimately a novel treatment strategy (Taylor et al. 2005; Landmann et al. 2011).