Abstract
Many animals have evolved associations with symbiotic microbes that benefit the host through increased growth, lifespan, and survival. Some interactions are obligate (essential for survival) while others are facultative (usually beneficial but not essential). Not all individuals host all facultative symbionts in a population, and thus there is probably a trade-off between the cost of hosting these symbionts and the benefits they confer to the host. Plant-sucking insects have been one of the most important models to test these costs and benefits experimentally. This research is now moving beyond the description of symbiont effects towards understanding the mechanisms of action, and their role in the wider ecological community. We present a quantitative and systematic analysis of the published evidence exploring this question. We found that whitefly and true bugs experience benefits through increased growth and fecundity, whereas aphids experience costs to their fecundity but benefits through increased resistance to natural enemies. We also report the lack of data in some plant-sucking groups, and explore variation in effect strengths and directions across aphid host, symbiont and plant species thus highlighting the importance of considering the context dependency of these interactions.
Highlights
Animal associations with microbes are widespread across the natural world and can play key roles in the biology of their hosts
This meta-analysis includes a total of 453 data points: 60% from aphids, 30% from Heteropterans and the remaining 10% from whitefly
In aphids the most measured variables were fecundity and parasitism, while body size and development time were the most measured in Heteropterans and whitefly (Table 1; Figure 1)
Summary
Animal associations with microbes are widespread across the natural world and can play key roles in the biology of their hosts. Insects are the most abundant group of species in terrestrial systems and have evolved symbiotic associations with various microbes (Brownlie & Johnson, 2009; Feldhaar, 2011; Frago et al, 2020). Plant-sucking insects feed on impoverished diets, and have co-evolved with specialised bacteria that synthesise essential nutrients they cannot acquire directly from the plant (Bennett & Moran, 2015). Over time, this coevolution can lead to genomic erosion resulting in an obligate
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