The interaction insect-symbiont, rather than insect-pathogen, may open new perspectives in the understanding of the host choice in bacteria

Insects are extremely successful animals in view of their great adaptability to a wide range of terrestrial niches. Symbiotic bacteria gave a precious contribution to such a success playing crucial roles in several insects in different contexts such as nutrition, development, reproduction, immunity, defense against natural enemies and speciation.Surprisingly, the study of symbiosis furnished precious data not only on insect evolution, but also on the mechanisms involved in the host choice giving us new perspectives to study this process that was poorly understood up to date through the study of pathogenic interactions.