Most species of insect, and many other plants and animals, carry maternally heritable
microorganisms—viruses, bacteria, unicellular eukaryotes, and fungi that pass from a female …

Aphids are frequently engaged in mutualistic associations with endosymbionts. Symbionts
are bacterial or fungal microorganisms that can be obligate or facultative to aphids …

Symbiotic microbes have become increasingly recognized to mediate interactions between
natural enemies and their hosts. The ecologies of these symbioses, however, are poorly …

The importance of microbial facultative endosymbionts to insects is increasingly being
recognized, but our understanding of how the fitness effects of infection are distributed …

Heritable genetic variation is required for evolution, and while typically encoded within
nuclear and organellar genomes, several groups of invertebrates harbour heritable …

The microbiome can significantly impact host phenotypes and serve as an additional source
of heritable genetic variation. While patterns across eukaryotes are consistent with a role for …

Many insects harbour facultative endosymbiotic bacteria, often more than one type at a time.
These symbionts can have major effects on their hosts' biology, which may be modulated by …

Highlights•Hamiltonella defensa is a bacterial symbiont protecting aphids against
parasitoids.•APSE viruses infect H. defensa and play key roles in the defensive …

In aphids, hormesis and symbiotic bacteria are the drivers for the development of pesticide
resistance. However, the related mechanism remains unclear. Here, we evaluated the …

Ecologically important traits of insects are often affected by facultative bacterial
endosymbionts. This is best studied in the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum, which is …