Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, David Clark Labs, 100 Brooks Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA
Department of Biology, Mary Baldwin University, 101 East Frederick Street, Staunton, VA 24401, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2018 Mar 28;285(1875). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2733.
Many species of yeast are integral to human society. They produce many of our foods, beverages and industrial chemicals, challenge us as pathogens, and provide models for the study of our own biology. However, few species are regularly studied and much of their ecology remains unclear, hindering the development of knowledge that is needed to improve the relationships between humans and yeasts. There is increasing evidence that insects are an essential component of ascomycetous yeast ecology. We propose a 'dispersal-encounter hypothesis' whereby yeasts are dispersed by insects between ephemeral, spatially disparate sugar resources, and insects, in turn, obtain the benefits of an honest signal from yeasts for the sugar resources. We review the relationship between yeasts and insects through three main examples: social wasps, social bees and beetles, with some additional examples from fruit flies. Ultimately, we suggest that over the next decades, consideration of these ecological and evolutionary relationships between insects and yeasts will allow prediction of where new yeast diversity is most likely to be discovered, particularly yeasts with traits of interest to human industry.
许多酵母物种是人类社会不可或缺的一部分。它们生产了我们的许多食物、饮料和工业化学品，既是病原体，又为我们自身生物学的研究提供了模型。然而，只有少数物种经常被研究，它们的大部分生态仍不清楚，这阻碍了人类与酵母之间关系的发展知识的发展，这些知识对于改善这种关系是必要的。越来越多的证据表明，昆虫是子囊菌酵母生态学的一个重要组成部分。我们提出了一个“传播-相遇假说”，即酵母通过昆虫在短暂的、空间上离散的糖源之间传播，而昆虫反过来从酵母对糖源的诚实信号中获得好处。我们通过三个主要例子：社会性黄蜂、社会性蜜蜂和甲虫，以及一些来自果蝇的额外例子，回顾了酵母与昆虫之间的关系。最终，我们认为，在未来几十年，考虑昆虫与酵母之间的这些生态和进化关系，将有助于预测在哪里最有可能发现新的酵母多样性，特别是对人类工业有兴趣的酵母的特性。
