ArticleBiology letters2015
Symbiont transmission entails the risk of parasite infection.
Article in Biology letters, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Yellow protein co-opted to sustain obligate symbiosis in leaf beetles.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Fidelity in co-diversified symbiosis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The role of animal hosts in shaping gut microbiome variation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Extracellular symbiont colonizes insect during embryo development.ISME communications · 2024Article
- Host Phylogeny Structures the Gut Bacterial Community Within Galerucella Leaf Beetles.Microbial ecology · 2023Article
- For the road: calibrated maternal investment in light of extracellular symbiont transmission.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- The Negative Effects of Feces-Associated Microorganisms on the Fitness of the Stored Product MiteFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Host microbiota can facilitate pathogen infection.PLoS pathogens · 2021Review
- The Gut Microbiota of the Insect Infraorder Pentatomomorpha (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) for the Light of Ecology and Evolution.Microorganisms · 2021Review
- Cultivation and Genome Sequencing of Bacteria Isolated From the Coffee Berry Borer (Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Compartmentalization drives the evolution of symbiotic cooperation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Links between metamorphosis and symbiosis in holometabolous insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Established Cotton Stainer Gut Bacterial Mutualists Evade Regulation by Host Antimicrobial Peptides.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2019Article
- Genetic conflict with a parasitic nematode disrupts the legume-rhizobia mutualism.Evolution letters · 2018Article
- Symbiont switching and alternative resource acquisition strategies drive mutualism breakdown.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- The digestive and defensive basis of carcass utilization by the burying beetle and its microbiota.Nature communications · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Like many animals, firebugs (Hemiptera, Pyrrhocoridae) rely on behavioural adaptations to successfully endow their offspring with microbial mutualists. To transmit the nutritionally beneficial Coriobacteriaceae symbionts, female firebugs smear egg surfaces with symbiont-containing faecal droplets that are subsequently ingested by newly hatched nymphs through active probing to initiate infection. Alternatively, the symbionts can be acquired horizontally through contact with faeces of infected conspecifics. Here, we report that these adaptations ensuring successful transmission of bacterial symbionts among firebugs are exploited by the specialized trypanosomatid parasite Leptomonas pyrrhocoris. Using comparative transcriptomics, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and controlled bioassays, we demonstrate that the transmission cycle of L. pyrrhocoris mirrors that of the bacterial mutualists, with high efficiency for both vertical and horizontal transmission. This indicates that the parasite capitalizes on pre-existing behavioural adaptations (egg smearing and probing) to facilitate its own transfer within host populations, adaptations that likely evolved to initiate and maintain an association with beneficial gut symbionts. Thus, the transmission of mutualistic microbes across host generations can entail a significant risk of co-transmitting pathogens or parasites, thereby exerting selective pressures on the host to evolve more specific mechanisms of transfer.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.