DOI: 10.1111/nph.71697 ISSN: 0028-646X
Frenemies forever: when parasitic fungi become an insect's secret weapon
Robin Wendrix, Silvia CoolenSummary
Plant‐feeding insects pose a major threat to global food production, and finding sustainable pest control strategies is challenging. Insect‐associated symbiotic microorganisms fulfill important beneficial functions for their host insects, enabling them to adapt and thrive in a changing environment. Understanding how these interactions evolve and what they mean for insect–plant interactions is key to the development of novel targets and potential tools for pest control. Since yeast and fungal insect symbionts are understudied in comparison to bacterial symbionts, this Tansley Insight explores their role in insect–plant interactions.