Insect Symbiosis Symposium

April 14th, 2011

We held a one-day symposium at the Spring Conference of the Society for general Microbiology at Harrogate, UK: to celebrate the recent transformation of our understanding of symbiotic micro-organisms in insects, catalyzed by advances in genomics and systems biology.  We thank SGM for financial support, which made this session possible.  We are delighted by the increasing integration of insect science with microbiology.

Our special thanks to the invited and offered speakers - coming from 7 countries and 3 continents

Our invited speakers were:
Genome reduction of symbiotic microorganisms: how small can they get?
John McCutchen
University of Montana, USA

Novel biological functions conferred by insect endosymbionts
Takema Fukatsu
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology, Tsukuba, Japan, Japan

Genome reduction and erosion of gene function: pattern and process
Siv Andersson
Uppsala, Sweden

Metabolic coevolution between symbiotic micro-organisms and their hosts
Angela Douglas
Cornell University, USA

Understanding whole system immunity: the coupling of host defenses and symbiont-conferred protection in the pea aphid immune response
Nicole Gerado
Emory University, USA

Coevolution between microbes and insect behaviour - defensive symbionts in beewolf antennae
Martin Kaltenpoth
Wurzberg, Germany

Fungal partners in the diversification of gall midges
Patrick Abbot
Vanderbilt, USA

The microbiota of Drosophila as a model system for insect interactions with symbiotic microorganisms
Nichole Broderick
Lausanne, Switzerland

Benefit and dependence in insect-microbial symbioses
Fabrice Vavre
University Lyon

And we had two offered papers

Leafcutter ant symbionts and their antifungal compounds
Ryan Seipke et al. (University of East Anglia)

Modelling metabolite flux between the pea aphid and its endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola APS
Sandy Macdonald et al. (University of York)