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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Layers of Symbiosis - Visualizing the Termite Hindgut Microbial Community

Layers of Symbiosis - Visualizing the Termite Hindgut Microbial Community

Published on: May 28, 2007

How multi-partner endosymbioses function.

Angela E Douglas¹

¹Department of Entomology and Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.

Nature Reviews. Microbiology

|November 8, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Many insects host microbial endosymbionts for nutrition and protection. This review explores how multiple microbial partners in insect endosymbiosis partition functions and co-evolve with hosts over time.

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Area of Science:

Microbiology
Evolutionary Biology
Insect Biology

Background:

Animals host endosymbiotic microorganisms for essential nutrients and defense.
Plant sap-feeding hemipteran insects often harbor multiple microbial endosymbionts.
Genomic studies reveal frequent independent acquisitions and replacements of endosymbionts in insect hosts.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the role of genetic partitioning in sustaining nutritional functions in multi-partner endosymbioses.
To discuss the co-evolutionary shaping of endosymbiont phenotypes by microbial and host interactions.
To highlight the long evolutionary timescales involved in these symbiotic relationships.

Main Methods:

Genomic analyses of endosymbiotic microorganisms in hemipteran insects.
Comparative studies of multi-partner endosymbioses.
Review of existing literature on insect-microbe co-evolution.

Main Results:

Partitioning of metabolic functions among multiple endosymbionts sustains host nutrition.
Co-evolutionary interactions with other microbes and the host shape endosymbiont traits.
Endosymbiont acquisition and replacement are common in plant sap-feeding insects.

Conclusions:

Multi-partner endosymbioses are shaped by functional genetic partitioning and co-evolution.
Endosymbiont evolution is influenced by interactions within the microbial community and with the host.
Understanding these complex relationships provides insights into host-microbe co-evolutionary dynamics.