Microbe-mediated adaptation to a novel diet
Insects are the most diverse animal group on earth. Many of them feed on plants, and they are constantly challenged by the diverse direct and indirect defenses of their food plants as well as an imbalanced nutrient composition. In response, the insects are continuously evolving different behavioral, morphological and biochemical adaptations to overcome the plant defenses. Additionally, some species rely on symbiotic microbes to deal with the plants' nutritional challenges. Scientists of the Max Planck Research Group Insect Symbiosis and the Experimental Ecology and Evolution Group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now found that acquiring a group of bacterial symbionts that are localized in the gut enabled a group of insects to successfully exploit a food source that was previously inaccessible to them and lead to the diversification within this new ecological niche (The ISME Journal, May 2015).