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‘A shining example’, inspired by the Reviews on p654 and p666.
Cover design: Philip Patenall; source illustration by Kathryn Bellissimo. [Note: The image credit originally published was incorrect; it has now been updated.]
Humankind relies on host–microbe symbioses and the ecosystems they form for diverse services, including food and health. It is important to understand how symbioses will fare in a world facing rapid global change and how adaptation and resilience of symbioses can be aided to secure their services for future generations.
This study shows that co-existence of the four Lactobacillus species in the gut of the honey bee is mainly dependent on the pollen-rich diet of the host, and mediated by the specialization of the gut symbionts towards distinct pollen-derived nutrients.
A recent study finds that the gut microbiota generates diurnal rhythms in innate immune responses that synchronize with host feeding rhythms in mice, allowing the host to anticipate exposure to pathogens.
Recent updates on the squid–vibrio symbiosis show mechanistic details that underlie the establishment and maintenance of a symbiotic association along the apical surfaces of an animal epithelium.
This month’s Under the Lens discusses the potential of in silico feedback control applied to individual microbial cells, highlighting its use for study of single-cell dynamics and patterning behaviours.
Symbiotic interactions can be neutral, harmful or have beneficial effects for host organisms. In this Review, Drew, Stevens and King discuss the evolutionary transitions of host–microorganism symbioses along the parasite–mutualist continuum, the mechanisms underlying evolutionary changes, the selective pressures involved and common empirical approaches for studying them.
In this Review, Mallott and Amato summarize the prevalence of phylosymbiosis across the animal kingdom and explore the microbial community assembly processes and related host traits that contribute to phylosymbiosis. They find that phylosymbiosis is less prevalent in taxonomically richer microbiomes across the animal kingdom, except in mammals, perhaps owing to a unique combination of mammalian traits that influence the microbiota.
In this Review Nyholm and McFall-Ngai describe recent advances in understanding the squid–vibrio symbiosis, specifically the strides that have been made in recent years in the study of bobtail squid symbiosis from the host viewpoint.
