symbiosis

All multicellular creatures interact with bacteria, but some have taken the relationship to another level with highly specialized structures that house, feed, and exploit the tiny organisms.

Specialized structures in plants and animals help attract and mediate communication with bacterial symbionts.

Tortoise leaf beetles enjoy the protection the fungus provides from insect predators such as ants, then carry the microbe to a mutual plant host, which their fungal symbiont infects.

Experimental evolution study sheds new light on the origin of animal-microbe symbioses and what it takes for bacteria to support their insect hosts.

Pregnant mosquito females deploy the microbe Elizabethkingia to speed larval growth; the larvae, in turn, help the bacteria outcompete other strains.

A seagrass relies on symbiotic bacteria inside its roots to fix nitrogen. This is the first time scientists have demonstrated that this relationship occurs in a marine plant.

Researchers can now explain how some marine plants obtain their nitrogen.

Scientists have documented examples of corals “remembering” prior exposure to heat stress in the field, and are now simulating these phenomena in the lab to better understand their cellular and molecular underpinnings.

Corals that previously experienced heat stress respond better the next time around. Researchers are trying to figure out how, and hope to one day take advantage of the phenomenon to improve coral restoration efforts. 

Beyond The Scientist’s coverage of COVID-19’s molecular underpinnings were many other stories highlighting the advances made in scientists’ understanding of the biology of cells.

Recent studies describe how resident microbiota appear to outcompete unwelcome visitors, either with superior weaponry or by guzzling up local resources.  

The endosymbiont Coxiella affects tick serotonin production and subsequent blood-feeding behavior, a study finds.

Having two different endosymbionts may allow the ciliate Pseudoblepharisma tenue to live in both oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor zones of the muddy bogs of southern Germany.

In yellow-green and purple versions of the reef-building Acropora tenuis, the genes that code for particular fluorescent and other colorful proteins become more active in the summer, protecting symbiotic algae from thermal stress and resisting bleaching.

Researchers uncover the “body-snatching” tactics of fungi that flourish immediately after wildfires.

The ChoanoVirus genome codes for rhodopsin, perhaps giving its choanoflagellate host extra energy-harvesting capabilities.

The antimicrobial compounds ants excrete to defend themselves from pathogens may protect plants as well.

Evolution imbued ants with an agriculture strategy that optimizes food rewards.

Anemones keep their algae populations in check.