Insect-symbiont: the key relationship to get in-depth insight on the host choice of bacteria

Abstract

Insects are extremely successful animals in view of their great adaptability to a wide range of
terrestrial niches. Symbiotic bacteria gave a precious contribution to such a success playing crucial
roles in different contexts such as nutrition, development, reproduction, immunity, defense against
natural enemies and speciation. Recently, the study of symbiosis furnished precious data not only on insect evolution, but also on the mechanisms involved in the bacterial host choice giving us new perspectives to study this process that was poorly understood up to date through the study of pathogenic interactions.