Symbiosis and Insect Diversification: an Ancient Symbiont of Sap-Feeding Insects from the Bacterial Phylum Bacteroidetes
- N. Moran, P. Tran, N. Gerardo
- BiologyApplied and Environmental Microbiology
- 1 December 2005
It is shown that the large group of related insects including cicadas, leafhoppers, treehopper, spittlebugs, and planthoppers host a distinct clade of bacterial symbionts, belonging to the phylum Bacteroidetes.
Immunity and other defenses in pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum
- N. Gerardo, B. Altincicek, A. Vilcinskas
- BiologyGenome Biology
- 23 February 2010
It is suggested that several aspects of the aphid life style, such as their association with microbial symbionts, could facilitate survival without strong immune protection, and the traditional view of insect immunity may not be as broadly applicable as once thought.
The Evolution of Agriculture in Insects
- U. Mueller, N. Gerardo, D. Aanen, D. Six, T. Schultz
- Biology
- 10 November 2005
This work has shown that insect farmers are remarkably similar, suggesting convergent evolution, and that these insect farmers manage, in addition to the primary cultivars, an array of “auxiliary” microbes providing disease suppression...
Genome Sequence of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum
- S. Richards, R. Gibbs, W. Hunter
- BiologyPLoS Biology
- 1 February 2010
The genome of the pea aphid shows remarkable levels of gene duplication and equally remarkable gene absences that shed light on aspects of aphid biology, most especially its symbiosis with Buchnera.
The Genome Sequence of the Leaf-Cutter Ant Atta cephalotes Reveals Insights into Its Obligate Symbiotic Lifestyle
- G. Suen, C. Teiling, C. Currie
- BiologyPLoS Genetics
- 1 February 2011
Following recent reports of genome sequences from other insects that engage in symbioses with beneficial microbes, the A. cephalotes genome provides new insights into the symbiotic lifestyle of this ant and advances the understanding of host–microbe symbioss.
Specificity in the symbiotic association between fungus-growing ants and protective Pseudonocardia bacteria
- M. Cafaro, M. Poulsen, C. Currie
- BiologyProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological…
- 22 June 2011
Fungus-growing ants (tribe Attini) engage in a mutualism with a fungus that serves as the ants' primary food source, but successful fungus cultivation is threatened by microfungal parasites (genus…
Animal Behavior and the Microbiome
- V. Ezenwa, N. Gerardo, D. Inouye, M. Medina, J. Xavier
- BiologyScience
- 12 October 2012
Research is revealing surprising roles for microbiomes in shaping behaviors across many animal taxa, shedding light on how behaviors from diet to social interactions affect the composition of host-associated microbial communities.
Non-immunological defense in an evolutionary framework.
- B. J. Parker, S. Barribeau, A. M. Laughton, J. D. de Roode, N. Gerardo
- BiologyTrends in Ecology & Evolution
- 1 May 2011
Ancient Host–Pathogen Associations Maintained by Specificity of Chemotaxis and Antibiosis
- N. Gerardo, S. Jacobs, C. Currie, U. Mueller
- BiologyPLoS Biology
- 11 July 2006
It is shown that parasitic fungal species in the genus Escovopsis, which attack and consume the fungi cultivated by fungus-growing ants, are attracted to their hosts via chemotaxis, thereby constraining long-term dynamics of host–parasite coevolution within this ancient association.
Discovery of Paratelenomus saccharalis (Dodd) (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae), an Egg Parasitoid of Megacopta cribraria F. (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) in its Expanded North American Range
- W. Gardner, J. L. Blount, J. Couret
- Biology
- 1 October 2013
The plataspid quickly spread from the 9 northeastern Georgia counties in which it was initially confi rmed into 383 additional counties in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia by the end of 2012 and has now been confiRmed in 4 additional states – Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maryland – and the District of Columbia.
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