The microbial dimension in insect nutritional ecology

Summary 1 Many insects derive nutritional advantage from persistent associations with microorganisms that variously synthesize essential nutrients or digest and detoxify ingested food. These persistent relationships are symbioses. 2 There is strong experimental evidence that symbiotic microorganisms provide plant sap-feeding insects with essential amino acids and contribute to the digestion of cellulose in some wood-feeding insects, including lower termites. Basic nutritional information is, however, lacking for many associations, including the relative roles of microbial and intrinsic sources of cellulose degradation in many insects and B-vitamin provisioning by microorganisms in blood-feeding insects. 3 Some…

• BA
  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council