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Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology

Symbiotic interactions between insects and microorganisms are widespread in nature and are often the source of ecological innovations. In addition to supplementing their host with essential nutrients, microbial symbionts can produce enzymes that help degrade their food source as well as small molecu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Berasategui, Aileen, Shukla, Shantanu, Salem, Hassan, Kaltenpoth, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4737797/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26659224
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-7186-9
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author Berasategui, Aileen
Shukla, Shantanu
Salem, Hassan
Kaltenpoth, Martin
author_facet Berasategui, Aileen
Shukla, Shantanu
Salem, Hassan
Kaltenpoth, Martin
author_sort Berasategui, Aileen
collection PubMed
description Symbiotic interactions between insects and microorganisms are widespread in nature and are often the source of ecological innovations. In addition to supplementing their host with essential nutrients, microbial symbionts can produce enzymes that help degrade their food source as well as small molecules that defend against pathogens, parasites, and predators. As such, the study of insect ecology and symbiosis represents an important source of chemical compounds and enzymes with potential biotechnological value. In addition, the knowledge on insect symbiosis can provide novel avenues for the control of agricultural pest insects and vectors of human diseases, through targeted manipulation of the symbionts or the host-symbiont associations. Here, we discuss different insect-microbe interactions that can be exploited for insect pest and human disease control, as well as in human medicine and industrial processes. Our aim is to raise awareness that insect symbionts can be interesting sources of biotechnological applications and that knowledge on insect ecology can guide targeted efforts to discover microorganisms of applied value.
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spelling pubmed-47377972016-02-09 Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology Berasategui, Aileen Shukla, Shantanu Salem, Hassan Kaltenpoth, Martin Appl Microbiol Biotechnol Mini-Review Symbiotic interactions between insects and microorganisms are widespread in nature and are often the source of ecological innovations. In addition to supplementing their host with essential nutrients, microbial symbionts can produce enzymes that help degrade their food source as well as small molecules that defend against pathogens, parasites, and predators. As such, the study of insect ecology and symbiosis represents an important source of chemical compounds and enzymes with potential biotechnological value. In addition, the knowledge on insect symbiosis can provide novel avenues for the control of agricultural pest insects and vectors of human diseases, through targeted manipulation of the symbionts or the host-symbiont associations. Here, we discuss different insect-microbe interactions that can be exploited for insect pest and human disease control, as well as in human medicine and industrial processes. Our aim is to raise awareness that insect symbionts can be interesting sources of biotechnological applications and that knowledge on insect ecology can guide targeted efforts to discover microorganisms of applied value. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2015-12-14 2016 /pmc/articles/PMC4737797/ /pubmed/26659224 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-7186-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2015 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Mini-Review
Berasategui, Aileen
Shukla, Shantanu
Salem, Hassan
Kaltenpoth, Martin
Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology
title Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology
title_full Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology
title_fullStr Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology
title_full_unstemmed Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology
title_short Potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology
title_sort potential applications of insect symbionts in biotechnology
topic Mini-Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4737797/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26659224
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-7186-9
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