Short time, big impact – host-microbiome interactions in the Anthropocene (stories from honey bees and bark beetles)
In recent decades our environment has been experiencing drastic, human-made changes. The consequences, especially regarding insects, range from steady declines/extinctions of species on the one hand, to outbreaks/invasions on the other. As most insects live in intimate relationships with microbial symbionts, these biotic interactions are undoubtedly disturbed by anthropogenic change such as chemicals, habitat modification, or climate change. In this talk, I will look at some of these effects on microbial symbioses in honey bees and bark beetles, two systems that show rather contrasting responses to environmental change.
The microbiome of honey bees (Apis mellifera) is well defined, socially transmitted and experimentally tractable. Leveraging these facts, we tested whether a chemically perturbed microbiome, as well as associated effects on host phenotypes, are transmitted across adult worker “generations”.
In aggressive bark beetles (such as Ips typographus), which are known for their increasing mass outbreaks, host-microbiome relationships are much less understood. I will present our current work on protective functions, symbiont mediated effects on beetle behavior, and our plans to investigate how the microbiome may be affected by climate change.
Panagiotis Theodorou
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU)
Germany
