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INTRACELLULAR SYMBIOSIS IN INSECTS

1960; Annual Reviews; Volume: 14; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1146/annurev.mi.14.100160.001005

1545-3251

Anton Friedrich Koch,

Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions

By we understand a regulated, harmonious cohabitation of two nonrelated partners, in which one of them lives in the body of the other usually more highly organized being, and in which the mutual adapta­ tion has reached such a high degree of intimacy, that the supposition is justi­ fied, it could be a useful arrangement for the host. This is the modern con­ cept of symbiosis as defined by Paul Buchner, the pioneer of symbiosis re­ search, in the latest edition of his book, Endosymbiose der Tiere mit pjlanz­ lichen Mikroorganismen (5). The botanist, de Bary, gave symbiosis a much broader definition (16). In 1879 at the congress of natural science in Kassel he coined the term, and defined it by using the lichen as an example. His definition included antagonistic symbiosis, which is better considered as parasitism in opposition to mutual symbiosis. Nevertheless, there are no sharp bound­ aries between the two categories and many cases of cohabitation of non­ related partners lead from one to the other. In our discussion we will limit ourselves solely to endosymbiosis and omit all other forms of mutual symbioses; lichen, mycorrhiza, leguminous root-nodules, etc., will not be considered here. We are indebted chiefly to Paul Buchner and his school for the abundance of material which has been gathered in the fifty years of rapidly developing symbiosis research. The results are so comprehensive that today we are quite well informed as to the boundaries of the symbiosis principle and in this field we can expect nothing essentially new to be discovered. At the present time, the emphasis in symbiosis is being placed on the explanation of the physio­ logical mutual relationship between the animal host and its guests, the plant organisms. I t is necessary to be well oriented on this point, if one wishes to discuss the meaning of this cohabitation. The very presence of such symbioses permits certain assumptions. All insects that suck plant sap, those that feed on vertebrate blood for their entire life span, and those that eat wood and ceratin, have symbionts. They are all one-sided specialists in nourishment. With these may be classified a few insects that are harmful to stores and provisions, such as the Calandra (Sitophilus) species, the drugstore weevil Sitodrepa panicea, Lasioderma ser­ ricorne, and Rhizopertha dominica, which stem from wood-eating ancestors and have adapted themselves only secondarily to this way of life. Also, a few omnivorous insects, such as cockroaches and the Australian mastoter-