Rapid Loss of Nutritional Symbionts in an Endemic Hawaiian Herbivore Radiation Is Associated with Plant Galling Habit.

ABSTRACT: Insect herbivores frequently cospeciate with symbionts that enable them to survive on nutritionally unbalanced diets. While ancient symbiont gain and loss events have been pivotal for insect diversification and feeding niche specialization, evidence of recent events is scarce. We examine the recent loss of nutritional symbionts (in as little as 1 MY) in sap-feeding Pariaconus, an endemic Hawaiian insect genus that has undergone adaptive radiation, evolving various galling and free-living ecologies on a single host-plant species, Metrosideros polymorpha within the last ∼5 MY. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, we investigated the bacterial microbiomes of 19 Pariaconus species and identified distinct symbiont profiles associated with specific host-plant ecologies. Phylogenetic analyses and metagenom

SUBMITTER: Hansen AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11425488 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature