Journal
APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 105, Issue 9, Pages 3393-3410Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00253-021-11268-0
Keywords
Host-symbiont interactions; Entomopathogenic fungi; Microbiome; Exo; and endosymbionts; Facultative and obligate microbial symbionts
Categories
Funding
- USDA NIFA award [201905150]
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Ambrosia beetles and their microbial communities, housed in specialized structures termed mycangia, represent a unique system of mutualism and parasitism. The nature of these interactions, including potential virulence towards trees, remains largely understudied and the beetle-fungal symbiont system is emerging as a model to study mechanisms underlying symbiotic relationships.
Ambrosia beetles and their microbial communities, housed in specialized structures termed mycangia, represent one of the oldest and most diverse systems of mutualism and parasitism described thus far. Comprised of core filamentous fungal members, but also including bacteria and yeasts, the mycangia represent a unique adaptation that allows beetles to store and transport their source of nutrition. Although perhaps the most ancient of farmers, the nature of these interactions remains largely understudied, with the exception of a handful of emerging pathosystems, where the fungal partner acts as a potentially devastating tree pathogen. Such virulence is often seen during invasions, where (invasive) beetles carrying the fungal symbiont/plant pathogen expand into new territories and presumably naive trees. Here, we summarize recent findings on the phylogenetic relationships between beetles and their symbionts and advances in the developmental and genetic characterization of the mechanisms that underlie insect-fungal-plant interactions. Results on genomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic aspects of these relationships are described. Although many members of the fungal Raffaelea-beetle symbiont genera are relatively harmless to host trees, specialized pathosystems including wilt diseases of laurel and oak, caused by specific subspecies (R. lauricola and R. quercus, in the USA and East Asia, respectively), have emerged as potent plant pathogens capable of killing healthy trees. With the development of genetic tools, coupled to biochemical and microscopic techniques, the ambrosia beetle-fungal symbiont is establishing itself as a unique model system to study the molecular determinants and mechanisms that underlie the convergences of symbioses, mutualism, parasitism, and virulence.
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