The planthopper Pentastiridius leporinus (Hemiptera: Cixiidae) is the major vector of a nonculturable plant-pathogenic gamma-3 proteobacterium associated with a disease of sugar beet called syndrome "basses richesses" (SBR). The bacterium, here called SBR bacterium, belongs to the Arsenophonous clade, which includes mostly insect-associated facultative symbionts. Assays using field-collected pl...

1. Studies of variability in host resistance to disease generally emphasize variability in susceptibility given exposure, neglecting the possibility that hosts may vary in behaviours that affect the risk of exposure. 2. In many insects, horizontal transmission of baculoviruses occurs when larvae consume foliage contaminated by the cadavers of virus-infected conspecific larvae; so, host behaviou...

Baculoviruses have evolved to control the defense mechanism of host cells and to replicate in the nuclei of infected cells efficiently. However, little is known about the dynamics and mechanism of baculovirus replication. To elucidate this, we have investigated the function of baculovirus genes and the baculovirus-host interaction using Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV). Here, we describ...

Recently, several applied studies exploring the use of pathogens for insect biocontrol have demonstrated significant effects of environmental temperature on the outcome of infection. For example, host resistance, host recovery, pathogen virulence and replication can alter considerably with sometimes very small changes in temperature. Moreover, the effectiveness of certain insect parasitoids and...

We report a comprehensive scaling law and novel lift generation mechanisms relevant to the aerodynamic functions of structural flexibility in insect flight. Using a Navier-Stokes equation solver, fully coupled to a structural dynamics solver, we consider the hovering motion of a wing of insect size, in which the dynamics of fluid-structure interaction leads to passive wing rotation. Lift genera...

Investigating local-scale interactions within a network makes it possible to test hypotheses about the mechanisms of global network connectivity and to ask whether there are general rules underlying network function across systems. Here we use motif analysis to determine whether the interactions within social insect colonies resemble the patterns exhibited by other animal associations or if the...

Background Accordingly to the pore formation model, Bacillus thuringiensis CRY1A toxins, once activated in the midgut of a susceptible insect, participates on a series of binding with protein receptors present in the intestinal epithelium. In Manduca sexta, where the mode of action is better characterized, the first interaction consists of a weak binding of a monomeric toxin to the aminopeptida...

Wolbachia are gram-negative bacteria that are widespread in nature, carried by the majority of insect species as well as some mites, crustaceans, and filarial nematodes. Wolbachia can range from parasitic to symbiotic, depending upon the interaction with the host species. The success of Wolbachia is attributed to efficient maternal transmission and manipulations of host reproduction that favor ...

The discovery of novel secretome proteins can add to our understanding of host-pathogen interactions. Here we report a rich diversity of secreted proteins from the interaction between grain aphids (host, insect order Hemiptera) and fungi of the order Entomophthorales (insect pathogens). The proteins were identified using a unique method unbiased by known sequences or functions to screen a cDNA ...

Forest-insect systems frequently show cyclic dynamics which has been of considerable interest to both experimental and theoretical ecologists. One important issue has been the manner in which density-dependence acting on the host population through resource competition influences the likelihood of population cycles. Existing models make contradictory predictions. Here, we explore two models tha...