Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LEECHSYMBIO (The Mexican leech Haementeria officinalis and its nutritional symbiont as a model system for the study of strict blood-feeding animal-microbe symbioses and bacteriocyte development)

Strict blood-feeding leeches (you heard that right, there are several that do not feed on blood!) are confronted with a strong B-vitamin deficiency and thus rely on bacterial symbionts to supplement their unbalanced diet.Within this project we aim to elucidate the origin and...