Microbiome‐mediated chemical communication in insects: Implications for pest management
Ioannis Eleftherianos, Wei Zhang, Amr Mohamed, Rasha K. Al‐Akeel, Abeer M. Alkhaibari, Nemat Keyhani, Guy Smagghe · 2026
Read Microbiome‐mediated chemical communication in insects: Implications for pest management by Ioannis Eleftherianos, Wei Zhang, Amr Mohamed, Rasha K. Al‐Akeel, Abeer M. Alkhaibari, Nemat Keyhani, Guy Smagghe (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13453170.txt.
Description
Ioannis Eleftherianos and six co-authors review how the microbes living on and in insects shape the chemical signals insects use to meet, mate, and find food. Their 2026 review sorts the proof into four routes, from microbes making scent chemicals outright to microbes tuning the insect's own senses. The strongest cases come from studies that remove the microbes, add them back, and watch behavior return.
Two cases stand out: scents in German cockroach droppings that draw the insects together, and a microbe called Wolbachia that shifts mating chemistry in fruit flies. Farm ready uses already show promise, notably fermentation based lures for fruit flies and microbe made deterrents that push pests away. Most other systems rest on correlation alone, the authors warn, with field proof still thin. They call for stricter lab work and safe field tests before these tools scale up.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ioannis Eleftherianos, Wei Zhang, Amr Mohamed, Rasha K. Al‐Akeel, Abeer M. Alkhaibari, Nemat Keyhani, Guy Smagghe |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 106889 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |