A response to Pennisi - “How do gut microbiomes help herbivores”, a hint into next-generation biocontrol solutions

By

Lefort, Marie-Caroline
Boyer, Stéphane
Glare, Travis R.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017-5-19

Original Publication

Metabarcoding and metagenomics

Volume

1

Pages

9--13

Subjects

Bacteria , Biological control , invasive species , Pest , Phytophagous insects

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/rethinkingecology.1.12932

 

Abstract

In a world where invasive invertebrate species can significantly compromise food security and where a dwindling range of synthetic pesticides remains our principal line of defence, testing a new invasion ecology hypothesis and understanding what makes a phytophagous insect invasive should be regarded as high priority research. Recent advances in microbiology strongly support the crucial and effective role of the gut microbiome in insect growth, development and, most importantly, environmental adaptation to their host plants. On the basis of recent literature, and following Elizabeth Pennisi’s article published in the journal Science, we hypothesis that gut microbiome could be a critical determinant of invasion success in phytophagous insects, and that the uncovering of common traits in the gut microbiome of invasive insects, a “gut microbiome invasiveness signature”, would open new avenues of research towards next-generation biocontrol solutions.