Facultatively intrabacterial localization of a planthopper endosymbiont as an adaptation to its vertical transmission.

Transovarial transmission is the most reliable way of passing on essential nutrient-providing endosymbionts from mothers to offspring. However, not all endosymbiotic microbes follow the complex path through the female host tissues to oocytes on their own. Here, we demonstrate an unusual transmission strategy adopted by one of the endosymbionts of the planthopper (Hemiptera: Tropiduchidae) from Bulgaria.

Pinpointing the microbiota of tardigrades: What is really there?

Microbiota are considered significant in the biology of tardigrades, yet their diversity and distribution remain largely unexplored. This is partly due to the methodological challenges associated with studying the microbiota of small organisms that inhabit microbe-rich environments. In our study, we characterized the microbiota of 31 species of cultured tardigrades using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.

Temperature and water availability drive insect seasonality across a temperate and a tropical region.

The more insects there are, the more food there is for insectivores and the higher the likelihood for insect-associated ecosystem services. Yet, we lack insights into the drivers of insect biomass over space and seasons, for both tropical and temperate zones. We used 245 Malaise traps, managed by 191 volunteers and park guards, to characterize year-round flying insect biomass in a temperate (Sweden) and a tropical (Madagascar) country.

Limited variation in microbial communities across populations of Macrosteles leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae).

Microbial symbionts play crucial roles in insect biology, yet their diversity, distribution, and temporal dynamics across host populations remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the spatio-temporal distribution of bacterial symbionts within the widely distributed and economically significant leafhopper genus Macrosteles, with a focus on Macrosteles laevis. Using host and symbiont marker gene amplicon sequencing, we explored the intricate relationships between these insects and their microbial partners.

Co-habiting ants and silverfish display a converging feeding ecology.

Background: Various animal taxa have specialized to living with social hosts. Depending on their level of specialization, these symbiotic animals are characterized by distinct behavioural, chemical, and morphological traits that enable close heterospecific interactions. Despite its functional importance, our understanding of the feeding ecology of animals living with social hosts remains limited.

Implementing high-throughput insect barcoding in microbiome studies: impact of non-destructive DNA extraction on microbiome reconstruction.

Background: Symbiotic relationships with diverse microorganisms are crucial for many aspects of insect biology. However, while our understanding of insect taxonomic diversity and the distribution of insect species in natural communities is limited, we know much less about their microbiota. In the era of rapid biodiversity declines, as researchers increasingly turn towards DNA-based monitoring, developing and broadly implementing approaches for high-throughput and cost-effective characterization of both insect and insect-associated microbial diversity is essential.

With a little help from my friends: the roles of microbial symbionts in insect populations and communities.

To understand insect abundance, distribution and dynamics, we need to understand the relevant drivers of their populations and communities. While microbial symbionts are known to strongly affect many aspects of insect biology, we lack data on their effects on populations or community processes, or on insects' evolutionary responses at different timescales. How these effects change as the anthropogenic effects on ecosystems intensify is an area of intense research.

Microbial symbionts are shared between ants and their associated beetles.

The transmission of microbial symbionts across animal species could strongly affect their biology and evolution, but our understanding of transmission patterns and dynamics is limited. Army ants (Formicidae: Dorylinae) and their hundreds of closely associated insect guest species (myrmecophiles) can provide unique insights into interspecific microbial symbiont sharing. Here, we compared the microbiota of workers and larvae of the army ant Eciton burchellii with those of 13 myrmecophile beetle species using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.

Optimizing insect metabarcoding using replicated mock communities.

1: Metabarcoding (high-throughput sequencing of marker gene amplicons) has emerged as a promising and cost-effective method for characterizing insect community samples. Yet, the methodology varies greatly among studies and its performance has not been systematically evaluated to date. In particular, it is unclear how accurately metabarcoding can resolve species communities in terms of presence-absence, abundances, and biomass.

Till evolution do us part: The diversity of symbiotic associations across populations of Philaenus spittlebugs.

Symbiotic bacteria have played crucial roles in the evolution of sap-feeding insects and can strongly affect host function. However, their diversity and distribution within species are not well understood; we do not know to what extent environmental factors or associations with other species may affect microbial community profiles. We addressed this question in Philaenus spittlebugs by surveying both insect and bacterial marker gene amplicons across multiple host populations.

FAVIS: Fast and versatile protocol for non-destructive metabarcoding of bulk insect samples.

Insects are diverse and sustain essential ecosystem functions, yet remain understudied. Recent reports about declines in insect abundance and diversity have highlighted a pressing need for comprehensive large-scale monitoring. Metabarcoding (high-throughput bulk sequencing of marker gene amplicons) offers a cost-effective and relatively fast method for characterizing insect community samples.

Genome Comparison Reveals Inversions and Alternative Evolutionary History of Nutritional Endosymbionts in Planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha).

The evolutionary success of sap-feeding hemipteran insects in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha was enabled by nutritional contributions from their heritable endosymbiotic bacteria. However, the symbiont diversity, functions, and evolutionary origins in this large insect group have not been broadly characterized using genomic tools. In particular, the origins and relationships among ancient betaproteobacterial symbionts Vidania (in Fulgoromorpha) and Nasuia/Zinderia (in Cicadomorpha) are uncertain.

No Transcriptional Compensation for Extreme Gene Dosage Imbalance in Fragmented Bacterial Endosymbionts of Cicadas.

Bacteria that form long-term intracellular associations with host cells lose many genes, a process that often results in tiny, gene-dense, and stable genomes. Paradoxically, the some of the same evolutionary processes that drive genome reduction and simplification may also cause genome expansion and complexification. A bacterial endosymbiont of cicadas, Hodgkinia cicadicola, exemplifies this paradox.

Efficacy and Safety of Intra-Articular Cross-Linked Sodium Hyaluronate for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Prospective, Active-Controlled, Randomized, Parallel-Group, Double-Blind, Multicenter Study.

The safety and efficacy of Hyruan ONE (test product), an intra-articular cross-linked sodium hyaluronate injection, to treat mild-to-moderate knee osteoarthritis was compared with that of Durolane (comparator) in a prospective, active-controlled, parallel-group, double-blind (masked-observed), multicenter non-inferiority study. European patients ( = 284) were randomized 1:1 (test product:comparator) and received one injection of cross-linked hyaluronic acid (60 mg/3 mL). In total, 280 patients completed the study.

Variable organization of symbiont-containing tissue across planthoppers hosting different heritable endosymbionts.

Sap-feeding hemipteran insects live in associations with diverse heritable symbiotic microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) that provide essential nutrients deficient in their hosts' diets. These symbionts typically reside in highly specialized organs called bacteriomes (with bacterial symbionts) or mycetomes (with fungal symbionts). The organization of these organs varies between insect clades that are ancestrally associated with different microbes.

Turtle ants harbor metabolically versatile microbiomes with conserved functions across development and phylogeny.

Gut bacterial symbionts can support animal nutrition by facilitating digestion and providing valuable metabolites. However, changes in symbiotic roles between immature and adult stages are not well documented, especially in ants. Here, we explored the metabolic capabilities of microbiomes sampled from herbivorous turtle ant (Cephalotes sp.

Alternative Transmission Patterns in Independently Acquired Nutritional Cosymbionts of Dictyopharidae Planthoppers.

Sap-sucking hemipterans host specialized, heritable microorganisms that supplement their diet with essential nutrients. These microbes show unusual features that provide a unique perspective on the coevolution of host-symbiont systems but are still poorly understood. Here, we combine microscopy with high-throughput sequencing to revisit 80-year-old reports on the diversity of symbiont transmission modes in a broadly distributed planthopper family, Dictyopharidae.

The effect of ethanol concentration on the morphological and molecular preservation of insects for biodiversity studies.

Traditionally, insects collected for scientific purposes have been dried and pinned, or preserved in 70% ethanol. Both methods preserve taxonomically informative exoskeletal structures well but are suboptimal for preserving DNA for molecular biology. Highly concentrated ethanol (95-100%), preferred as a DNA preservative, has generally been assumed to make specimens brittle and prone to breaking.

Prevalence of Ocular Demodicosis and Ocular Surface Conditions in Patients Selected for Cataract Surgery.

The aim of the study was to analyze the prevalence of ocular demodicosis and ocular surface conditions in patients selected for cataract surgery. Eyelashes from 73 patients selected for cataract surgery were evaluated at × 40 and × 100 magnification using light microscopy. The anterior segment was assessed with the slit lamp.

Evolutionary relationships among spp. (Entomophthorales), obligate pathogens of cicadas.

The fungal genus (Zoopagomycota: Entomophthorales) includes more than a dozen obligate, sexually transmissible pathogenic species that infect cicadas (Hemiptera) worldwide. At least two species are known to produce psychoactive compounds during infection, which has garnered considerable interest for this enigmatic genus. As with many Entomophthorales, the evolutionary relationships and host associations of spp.

One Hundred Mitochondrial Genomes of Cicadas.

Mitochondrial genomes can provide valuable information on the biology and evolutionary histories of their host organisms. Here, we present and characterize the complete coding regions of 107 mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of cicadas (Insecta: Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadoidea), representing 31 genera, 61 species, and 83 populations. We show that all cicada mitogenomes retain the organization and gene contents thought to be ancestral in insects, with some variability among cicada clades in the length of a region between the genes nad2 and cox1, which encodes 3 tRNAs.

Changes in Endosymbiont Complexity Drive Host-Level Compensatory Adaptations in Cicadas.

For insects that depend on one or more bacterial endosymbionts for survival, it is critical that these bacteria are faithfully transmitted between insect generations. Cicadas harbor two essential bacterial endosymbionts, " Sulcia muelleri" and " Hodgkinia cicadicola." In some cicada species, has fragmented into multiple distinct but interdependent cellular and genomic lineages that can differ in abundance by more than two orders of magnitude.

Genome Evolution of Bartonellaceae Symbionts of Ants at the Opposite Ends of the Trophic Scale.

Many insects rely on bacterial symbionts to supply essential amino acids and vitamins that are deficient in their diets, but metabolic comparisons of closely related gut bacteria in insects with different dietary preferences have not been performed. Here, we demonstrate that herbivorous ants of the genus Dolichoderus from the Peruvian Amazon host bacteria of the family Bartonellaceae, known for establishing chronic or pathogenic infections in mammals. We detected these bacteria in all studied Dolichoderus species, and found that they reside in the midgut wall, that is, the same location as many previously described nutritional endosymbionts of insects.