Experimental design overview.

Co-colonization by rhizobacteria and virus shifts soybean metabolism and the Mexican bean beetle behavior

Pudilo et al.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

(A) An adult female in the field on Sicyos angulatus. (B) Back view of an adult female reared on cucumber, whose hindleg organs are covered with fungal hyphae (arrowheads). (C) Magnified image of the hindleg organ. (D to L) Morphology of hind tibia of adult male [(D) to (F)], immature adult female [(G) to (I)], and mature adult female [(J) to (L)]. [(D), (G), and (I)] Brightfield images. [(E), (H), and (K)] Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. [(F), (I), and (L)] Magnified SEM images. (M to O) Peculiar behavior of egg-laying adult female. After laying each egg (M), the female rhythmically scratches the hyphae-covered hindleg organ with tarsal claws of the opposite hindleg (N) and then rubs the egg surface with the claws in a skillful manner (O). Also see movie S1. (P to R) Egg mass covered with fungal hyphae at 0-day (P), 3-day (Q), and 10-day (R) intervals after oviposition. Reddish color of 10-day eggs reflects the body color of developing nymphs inside.

What looked like a hearing organ on a tiny stinkbug’s leg turned out to be something far stranger: a fungal nursery that mother bugs use to coat their newly laid eggs in protective symbiotic hyphae, shielding their offspring from parasitic wasps.

Learn more in Science: https://scim.ag/4nDrDNm

Meta-analysis reveals strong evidence for adaptive host and vector manipulation by plant viruses Quentin Chesnais, Christie A. Bahlai, Angela Peace, David W. Crowder, Nilsa A. Bosque-Pérez, Kerry E. Mauck This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be fo…

📰Published📰Meta-analysis reveals strong evidence for adaptive host and vector manipulation by plant viruses🦠

buff.ly/AFJMkhs

🧪🌍

If you work on insect symbionts this call for papers might be of interest: symbionts as mediators of ecological interactions.

Particular topics of interest:
-Ecological & environmental factors that influence insect-symbiont relationships
-How symbionts mediate interactions
-Symbiont phenotypes

A dual insect symbiont and plant pathogen improves insect host fitness under arginine limitation | mBio Unlike obligate symbionts that are permanently associated with their hosts, facultative symbionts rarely show direct nutritional contributions, especially under nutrient-limited conditions. This study...

New study from my lab and former grad Dr. Kwak shows Liberibacter psyllaurous, a dual insect symbiont and plant pathogen, boosts psyllid fitness by providing essential nutrients like arginine. A rare case of nutritional benefits from non-obligate symbionts #symbiosis journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Mosquito host background influences microbiome-ZIKV interactions in field and laboratory-reared Aedes aegypti The mosquito microbiota represents an intricate assemblage of microorganisms, comprising bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa. Factors modulating microbiome abundance and composition include host ge...

Science distraction? #Zika virus interactions with the microbiome in Aedes aegypti. The microbiomes in different mosquito lines respond distinctly to viral exposure and infection. @laurabrettell.bsky.social @alexwild.bsky.social @evaheinz7.bsky.social and others.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How do animals compensate for trait loss?

In beetles, symbiosis is a consistent strategy. Where the repeated loss of endogenous digestive enzymes is offset by functionally convergent symbioses: www.cell.com/current-biol...
Excited to share our latest, out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social!

Latin American journals are open-access pioneers. Now, they need an audience SciElo, other platforms work to help journals reach readers around the world

Latin America is a leader in nonprofit open-access, with pioneering platforms like Scielo and Redalyc. But it still struggles to have their journals valued at home, as researchers’ perfomances often depend on them publishing on mainstream commercial journals.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Soil microbiomes show consistent and predictable responses to extreme events - Nature Soils from 30 grasslands across Europe were subjected to 4 contrasting extreme climatic events under drought, flood, freezing and heat conditions, with the results suggesting that soil microbiomes fro...

Science takes time - a lot of time. Time that is more and more difficult to make available because of increased workloads. Time that exceeds the temporary contracts of postdocs and PhDs.

I'll illustrate this using our paper published in Nature yesterday. 🧵 (1/x)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Throwback to this amazing research from my colleagues at Biocomm—with much more to look forward to! 🐝

We’re excited to consider applicants for scholarships for our 2025 Biology of Vector-borne Diseases course! See our advert below. Please re-skeet to trainees and colleagues, as graduate students to faculty and practitioners across plant, animal and human health can apply.