Environmental conditions affect insect fitness, with many species constrained by specific
temperature ranges. Aphids are limited to temperate climates and it is hypothesized that this is …

Microbial symbionts often alter the phenotype of their host. Benefits and costs to hosts
depend on many factors, including host genotype, symbiont species and genotype, and …

Aphids are diverse sap-sucking insects [1] that can be serious agricultural pests and vectors
of plant disease [2]. Some species, including pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum), are …

Insect herbivores, such as aphids, are common on plants, yet how they interact with plant
microbiomes remains largely unknown. For instance, for the widespread bacterial epiphyte and …

… Finally, after removing eukaryotes, archaea, chloroplasts, singletons and mitochondria,
we used the ‘decontam’ package in R to identify and remove likely contaminants based on …

Interactions between epiphytic bacteria and herbivorous insects are ubiquitous on plants,
but little is known about their ecological implications. Aphids are devastating crop pests …

Ecotypic variation among populations may become associated with widespread genomic
differentiation, but theory predicts that this should happen only under particular conditions of …

Strains of the well-studied plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae show large differences in
their ability to colonize plants epiphytically and to inflict damage to hosts. Additionally, P. …

Background Until recently the isolation of microsatellite markers from Lepidoptera has
proved troublesome, expensive and time-consuming. Following on from a previous study of …

Bacterial communities in the phyllosphere, the above-ground parts of plants, are diverse yet
understudied. These bacteria are important for plant health and also for inter-kingdom …