Feeding on living or dead plant material is widespread in insects. Seminal work on termites
and aphids has provided profound insights into the critical nutritional role that microbes play …

Global food production is anticipated to rise along with the growth of the global population.
As a result, creative solutions must be devised to ensure that everyone has access to …

Depolymerizing lignin, the complex phenolic polymer fortifying plant cell walls, is an
essential but challenging starting point for the lignocellulosics industries. The variety of ether …

Fungus-growing termites engage in an obligate mutualistic relationship with Termitomyces
fungi, which they maintain in monocultures on specialised fungus comb structures, without …

Simple Summary Fungus-growing termites cultivate monocultures of a specific fungi (of a
genus called Termitomyces) for food in their colony, analogously to human farmers growing …

Mutualistic coevolution can be mediated by vertical transmission of symbionts between host
generations. Termites host complex gut bacterial communities with evolutionary histories …

Social insects owe their ecological success to the division of labour between castes, but
associations between microbial community compositions and castes with different tasks and …

Fungus-growing termites rely on mutualistic fungi of the genus Termitomyces and gut
microbes for plant biomass degradation. Due to a certain degree of symbiont …

Social insects maximize resource acquisition and allocation through division of labor and
associations with microbial symbionts. Colonies divide labor among castes and subcastes …

Anthropogenic activities have extensively transformed the biosphere by extracting and
disposing of resources, crossing boundaries of planetary threat while causing a global crisis …