The insect's microbiota is well acknowledged as a “hidden” player influencing essential
insect traits. The gut microbiome of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) has been shown to …

Cancer is the world's second-leading cause of death, and the involvement of microbes in a
range of diseases, including cancer, is well established. The gut microbiota is known to play …

Humans coexist with a vast bacterial, fungal and viral microbiome with which we have
coevolved for millions of years. Several long recognized epidemiological associations …

Pectin, an integral component of the plant cell wall, is a recalcitrant substrate against
enzymatic challenges by most animals. In characterizing the source of a leaf beetle's …

Fossil age data and molecular sequences are increasingly combined to establish a
timescale for the Tree of Life. Arthropods, as the most species-rich and morphologically …

Phasmatodea comprises over 3,000 extant species and stands out as one of the last
remaining insect orders for which a robust, higher-level phylogenetic hypothesis is lacking …

Background The re-evolution of complex characters is generally considered impossible, yet,
studies of recent years have provided several examples of phenotypic reversals shown to …

Stick and leaf insects (Phasmatodea) are large, tropical, predominantly nocturnal
herbivores, which exhibit extreme masquerade crypsis, whereby they morphologically and …

(Leprocaulinus, Macrophasma, and Phobaeticus) and conspecific males being winged.
Ocelli are present only in individuals capable of flight, but are also absent in many winged …

Pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) are insects containing genes of bacterial origin with
putative functions in peptidoglycan (PGN) metabolism. Of these, rlpA1-5, amiD, and ldcA are …