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Abstract

My research group is interested in the evolutionary processes that shape mutually beneficial species interactions, with emphasis on why they form and how they facilitate adaptation in insects. Using tortoise beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae) as a model, my talk will outline the mechanisms by which these insects house and transmit their obligate bacterial and fungal symbionts. I will discuss the physiological and evolutionary consequences of harbouring and co-evolving with a single clade of microbes for an upwards of 80 million years. Leveraging data from genomic and transcriptomic sequencing, microscopy and bioassays, I will address (i) the metabolic factors defining nutritional and defensive symbioses within the Cassidinae, (ii) how variation in these factors drastically shapes beetle physiology, host-plant use, and defensive chemistry, and, finally, (iii) the trade-offs governing symbiont localisation and transmission. Collectively, our findings highlight the key role of obligate symbioses in facilitating adaptation across a highly speciose clade of herbivorous insects, the leaf beetles.