Department of Entomology, Comstock Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Cell Host Microbe. 2011 Oct 20;10(4):359-67. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2011.09.001.
As in mammals, insect health is strongly influenced by the composition and activities of resident microorganisms. However, the microbiota of insects is generally less diverse than that of mammals, allowing microbial function in insects to be coupled to individual, identified microbial species. This trait of insect symbioses facilitates our understanding of the mechanisms that promote insect-microbial coexistence and the processes by which the microbiota affect insect well-being. As a result, insects are potentially ideal models to study various aspects of interactions between the host and its resident microorganisms that would be impractical or unfeasible in mammals and to generate hypotheses for subsequent testing in mammalian models.
与哺乳动物一样，昆虫的健康状况受到其体内常驻微生物的组成和活动的强烈影响。然而，昆虫的微生物群落通常不如哺乳动物多样化，这使得昆虫体内的微生物功能与个体的、确定的微生物物种相关联。昆虫共生的这一特征有助于我们理解促进昆虫与微生物共存的机制，以及微生物影响昆虫健康的过程。因此，昆虫是研究宿主与其体内常驻微生物相互作用的各个方面的潜在理想模型，而这些方面在哺乳动物中进行研究可能不切实际或不可行，并为随后在哺乳动物模型中的测试生成假设。
