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Published on: September 12, 2020
Symbiotic Bacteria Regulating Insect-Insect/Fungus/Virus Mutualism
Siqi Chen1, Aiming Zhou2, Yijuan Xu1
1Red Imported Fire Ant Research Center, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
None:
Bacteria associated with insects potentially provide many beneficial services and have been well documented. Mutualism that relates to insects is widespread in ecosystems. However, the interrelation between "symbiotic bacteria" and "mutualism" has rarely been studied. We introduce three systems of mutualism that relate to insects (ants and honeydew-producing Hemiptera, fungus-growing insects and fungi, and plant persistent viruses and vector insects) and review the species of symbiotic bacteria in host insects, as well as their functions in host insects and the mechanisms underlying mutualism regulation. A deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms and role of symbiotic bacteria, based on metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiology, will be required for describing the entire interaction network.
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