Evolution and ecology of parasitism and symbiosis in insects

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Symbiosis is one of the most important forces shaping life on our planet. A major recent development in biology is the realization that all multicellular organisms harbour symbiotic microbes. These have long been incredibly difficult to study; however, advances in molecular and computational biology have revolutionized our understanding of microbial symbiosis. For example, we are just beginning to disentangle the function of the trillions of microbes that live in the human gut, and their important roles in metabolism, immunity, and development. Indeed, it has been argued that one cannot consider the ecology and evolution of an organism without including its microbiota, viewing the organism as a ‘hologenome’ (i.e. the host’s nuclear, organellar, and symbiont genomes combined).