title: Grooming Behavior as a Mechanism of Insect Disease Defense.
abstract: Grooming is a well-recognized, multipurpose, behavior in arthropods and vertebrates. In this paper, we review the literature to highlight the physical function, neurophysiological mechanisms, and role that grooming plays in insect defense against pathogenic infection. The intricate relationships between the physical, neurological and immunological mechanisms of grooming are discussed to illustrate the importance of this behavior when examining the ecology of insect-pathogen interactions.
authors.affiliation: Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Scienses, Saint-Petersburg 194223, Russia. mzhukovskaya@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhukovskaya
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Uji 611-0011, Japan. ayanagawa@rish.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yanagawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. bfor@uga.edu.
authors.forename: Brian T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Forschler
keywords: disease resistance; entomopathogen; grooming behavior; neural circuit