Gordon Bennett

Plant Pathogens Moonlighting as Beneficial Insect Symbionts Herbivorous insects can shape the epidemiology of disease in plants by vectoring numerous phytopathogens. While the consequences of infection are often well-characterized in the host plant, the extent...

Can plant pathogens boost vector fitness?

Together with @hassansalem.bsky.social, we review how phytopathogens can spread further by moonlighting as insect symbionts 🪲 More on this nifty lifestyle in @annualreviews.bsky.social!

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

02.02.2026 07:48 — 👍 36    🔁 27    💬 1    📌 1

Thanks! 😳

02.02.2026 05:13 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

*correct link
Very excited to share a preprint from stellar lab postdoc, Dr. Younghwan Kwak.

“Intrahost mutational dynamics parallel long-term genome evolution in endosymbionts”

Cool, skillful work and a nifty story!
#symbiosis #insects #evolution

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

02.02.2026 05:11 — 👍 5    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Very excited to share a preprint from stellar lab postdoc, Dr. Younghwan Kwak.

“Intrahost mutational dynamics parallel long-term genome evolution in endosymbionts”

Cool, skillful work and a nifty story!
#symbiosis #insects #evolution

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

02.02.2026 03:10 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Phenotypic divergence is driven by mobile genetic elements in a heritable insect symbiont Heritable microbes profoundly influence insect biology, yet the traits they confer often evolve rapidly and differ among closely related symbiont strains. Despite their importance, we lack a clear understanding of how novel traits arise in symbiosis and how this diversity influences host ecology in natural populations. The aphid facultative symbiont Regiella insecticola is ideally suited to this question because of its strong lineage-specific variation in host benefits. By generating 20 high-quality genomes, we found that Regiella ’s evolution is driven largely by gene gains mediated by mobile genetic elements. We identified a plasmid (pRILSR1) that encodes a type IV secretion system and a highly expressed predicted effector that has been convergently acquired by Regiella strains from pea aphids. Notably, only pRILSR1-bearing strains confer protection against the specialist fungal pathogen Pandora neoaphidis , indicating that gains and losses of the plasmid underlie the evolution of this key defensive phenotype. Using a multi-year field study, we further show that the pRILSR1 plasmid is strongly associated with Regiella found in pea aphid populations adapted to specific host plants, driving variation in symbiont-mediated defense across populations. Together, our results show that mobile genetic elements generate key adaptive traits in microbial symbionts and, in doing so, drive phenotypic divergence among host populations. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

New preprint! Symbionts provide critical functions—but how do they impact host phenotypes in nature? We show a horizontally transferred plasmid in a heritable symbiont drives divergence in defensive traits across insect populations, revealing how mobile DNA rapidly shapes pathogen resistance. 👇

28.01.2026 15:41 — 👍 7    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

Hidden genetic diversity among Blochmanniella endosymbionts of closely related carpenter ant populations Abstract. Carpenter ants (Family Formicidae; Genus Camponotus) are a globally distributed, arboreal clade. They harbor an intracellular obligate bacterial

A little late due to re-establishing a Bluesky presence… but! here is another recent pub from a terrific and talented grad student.

A fun project from a beautiful place. Love (y)our National Parks! #nationaparks #symbiosis #insects

academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

20.01.2026 18:49 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Characterizing a Novel Symbiopectobacterium purcellii MEX Strain at the Early Stages of Establishing a Symbiotic Relationship Abstract. Insects ally with microbial symbionts for a diversity of services. The range of these interactions is wide, spanning from beneficial to pathogeni

Gunasekaran, Sicard, Almeida & @symboevo.bsky.social report a novel symbiotic interaction between a leafhopper and a bacterium; they analyse the genome of the bacterium, inferring it is in the early stages of establishing a host-dependent symbiosis.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

#genome #evolution

20.01.2026 10:36 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Lophophytum pyramidale. Photo credit: M. Virginia Sanchez Puerta

Happy to share this work with Virginia Sanchez-Puerta (not on bsky) and colleagues on how loss of photosynthesis in these (strange!) plants affects translation and tRNAs in plastids and mitochondria....

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1/n

13.01.2026 04:45 — 👍 38    🔁 18    💬 2    📌 1

Characterizing a novel Symbiopectobacterium purcellii MEX strain at the early stages of establishing a symbiotic relationship Abstract. Insects ally with microbial symbionts for a diversity of services. The range of these interactions is wide, spanning from beneficial to pathogeni

I’m excited to share a new paper by a super talented graduate-student-now-postdoc. Grateful to work with old and new collaborators!

Characterizing a novel Symbiopectobacterium MEX strain at the early stages of establishing a symbiotic relationship url: academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

09.01.2026 21:36 — 👍 10    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0