title: Insect symbionts in food webs.
abstract: Recent research has shown that the bacterial endosymbionts of insects are abundant and diverse, and that they have numerous different effects on their hosts' biology. Here we explore how insect endosymbionts might affect the structure and dynamics of insect communities. Using the obligate and facultative symbionts of aphids as an example, we find that there are multiple ways that symbiont presence might affect food web structure. Many symbionts are now known to help their hosts escape or resist natural enemy attack, and others can allow their hosts to withstand abiotic stress or affect host plant use. In addition to the direct effect of symbionts on aphid phenotypes there may be indirect effects mediated through trophic and non-trophic community interactions. We believe that by using data from barcoding studies to identify bacterial symbionts, this extra, microbial dimension to insect food webs can be better elucidated.This article is part of the themed issue 'From DNA barcodes to biomes'.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Ailsa H C
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8195-2593
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: McLean
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Benjamin J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0679-4732
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0711-6447
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hrček
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085-1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lee M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK charles.godfray@zoo.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: H Charles J
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8859-7232
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Godfray
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001042:Aphids / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D020387:Food Chain; D013559:Symbiosis
keywords: aphid; food web; mutualism; resistance; symbiont; symbiosis