Insects are an incredibly successful class of animals: They’ve conquered every continent and spread throughout virtually every terrestrial ecosystem. But they didn’t do it alone. Many species of insects owe at least some of their success to nutrient-producing symbiotic bacteria, which allow the insects to survive on diets that would be impossible for other animals or without the bacteria’s assistance.
While the partnerships between insects and bacteria have been studied for decades, how they form has remained something of a mystery. Now, in a study published August 4 in Nature Microbiology, researchers directed bacterial evolution in the lab to forge a new insect-bacteria partnership, providing insights into how these symbioses may evolve in nature.
“This study is very novel and exciting because it shows the surprising ease with which microbes can evolve to become symbionts,” Alison Ravenscraft, an insect microbiome researcher at the University of Texas at Arlington who was ...
