Links between metamorphosis and symbiosis in holometabolous insects.

ABSTRACT: Many animals depend on microbial symbionts to provide nutrition, defence or other services. Holometabolous insects, as well as other animals that undergo metamorphosis, face unique constraints on symbiont maintenance. Microbes present in larvae encounter a radical transformation of their habitat and may also need to withstand chemical and immunological challenges. Metamorphosis also provides an opportunity, in that symbiotic associations can be decoupled over development. For example, some holometabolous insects maintain the same symbiont as larvae and adults, but house it in different tissues; in other species, larvae and adults may harbour entirely different types or numbers of microbes, in accordance with shifts in host diet or habitat. Such flexibility may provide an advantage over hem

SUBMITTER: Hammer TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6711286 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature