An invasive beetle-fungus complex is maintained by fungal nutritional-compensation mediated by bacterial volatiles.

ABSTRACT: Mutualisms between symbiotic microbes and animals have been well documented, and nutritional relationships provide the foundation for maintaining beneficial associations. The well-studied mutualism between bark beetles and their fungi has become a classic model system in the study of symbioses. Despite the nutritional competition between bark beetles and beneficial fungi in the same niche due to poor nutritional feeding substrates, bark beetles still maintain mutualistic associations with beneficial fungi over time. The mechanism behind this phenomenon, however, remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrated the bark beetle Dendroctonus valens LeConte relies on the symbiotic bacterial volatile ammonia, as a nitrogen source, to regulate carbohydrate metabolism of its mutualistic fungus Lept

SUBMITTER: Liu F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7784882 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature