Publications by authors named "Zhaoyi Qian"
Gut bacteria of lepidopteran herbivores facilitate digestion of plant toxins.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
October 2024
Article Synopsis
- * Recent research shows that some lepidopterans have gut microbiota that help them detoxify plant defenses, though evidence for this is still limited.
- * This study found that a specific bacterial strain from silkworms can break down a toxic compound (DNJ) from mulberry, enhances the growth of nonspecialist herbivores, and supports the idea that gut microbes play a crucial role in detoxifying plant defenses in these insects.
Silkworm pupae as widely consumed insect products are good biosources of protein and micronutrients. Silkworm rearing throughout the year can be achieved by feeding them an artificial diet instead of native plants, facilitating extensive pupa production. However, artificial diets are prone to spoilage caused by bacterial contamination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are emerging environmental pollutants that have raised serious concerns about their potential impact on ecosystem and organism health. Despite increasing efforts to investigate the impacts of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) on biota little is known about their potential impacts on terrestrial organisms, especially insects, at environmental concentrations.
Objectives: To address this gap, we used an insect model, silkworm Bombyx mori to examine the potential long-term impacts of different sizes of polystyrene (PS) MNPs at environmentally realistic concentrations (0.