Metabarcoding reveals a high diversity of woody host-associated spp. in soils at public gardens and amenity woodlands in Britain.

Forests and woodlands worldwide are being severely impacted by invasive species, with initial outbreaks in some cases occurring on host trees located in public parks and gardens. These highly disturbed sites with diverse planting practices may indeed act as harbours for invasive pathogens which are particularly well adapted to surviving in soil. High throughput Illumina sequencing was used to analyse species diversity in soil samples collected from 14 public garden/amenity woodland sites in northern Britain.

Planting exotic relatives has increased the threat posed by to the Caledonian pine populations of Scotland.

To manage emerging forest diseases and prevent their occurrence in the future, it is essential to determine the origin(s) of the pathogens involved and identify the management practices that have ultimately caused disease problems. One such practice is the widespread planting of exotic tree species within the range of related native taxa. This can lead to emerging forest disease both by facilitating introduction of exotic pathogens and by providing susceptible hosts on which epidemics of native pathogens can develop.

Differential gene expression and alternative splicing in insect immune specificity.

Background: Ecological studies routinely show genotype-genotype interactions between insects and their parasites. The mechanisms behind these interactions are not clearly understood. Using the bumblebee Bombus terrestris/trypanosome Crithidia bombi model system (two bumblebee colonies by two Crithidia strains), we have carried out a transcriptome-wide analysis of gene expression and alternative splicing in bees during C.

Differential expression of immune defences is associated with specific host-parasite interactions in insects.

Recent ecological studies in invertebrates show that the outcome of an infection is dependent on the specific pairing of host and parasite. Such specificity contrasts the long-held view that invertebrate innate immunity depends on a broad-spectrum recognition system. An important question is whether this specificity is due to the immune response rather than some other interplay between host and parasite genotypes.

Insect psychoneuroimmunology: immune response reduces learning in protein starved bumblebees (Bombus terrestris).

It is well established in vertebrates that there are many intricate interactions between the immune system and the nervous system. Here, we present behavioural evidence indicating a link between the immune system and the nervous system in insects. We show that otherwise non-infected bumblebees whose immune systems were challenged by a non-pathogenic immunogenic elicitor (lipopolysaccharide) have reduced abilities to learn or recall a memory in a classical conditioning paradigm.