REVIEW article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Environmental, Aviation and Space Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1628696
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations in Tools and Methods for Life Sciences Research in SpaceView all 4 articles
Immune challenges and pathogen risks in edible insects: Safeguarding health in space life-support systems
Provisionally accepted
- 1university of copenhagen, frederiksberg, Denmark
- 2University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
- 3University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
- 4International University of Applied Sciences, Bad Reichenhall, Germany
- 5University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy
- 6Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
As space agencies progress toward long-duration missions and extraterrestrial colonisation, Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS) have become central to achieving closed-loop sustainability. Edible insects offer a highly efficient protein source suited for BLSS integration, yet the unique stressors of spaceflight, microgravity, ionising radiation, and limited microbial exposure, pose significant risks to insect immunity and pathogen dynamics. This review synthesises current research on insect immune function, microbiome stability, and disease susceptibility under space-relevant conditions, highlighting vulnerabilities introduced by physical, nutritional and behavioural stressors. We emphasise species-specific immune traits, life stage-and sex-dependent responses, and the contribution of natural behaviours and transgenerational immunity to colony resilience. Further, we examine the synergistic effects of the space environment and high-density rearing on pathogen transmission and virulence evolution. Mitigation strategies, including environmental controls, probiotic interventions and biosensor-based health monitoring, are discussed. By identifying critical knowledge gaps, particularly concerning immune suppression under microgravity and radiation, density-driven pathogen evolution, and the stability of behavioural immunity, we propose system-level responses to support robust insect health. Our synthesis advances the framework for designing resilient, health-optimised insect rearing systems for future space missions and terrestrial applications. Ensuring insect immune competence will be essential for ecological stability and food security in extraterrestrial environments.
Keywords: Edible insects, space agriculture, Food, Microbiology, Pathogen virulence
Received: 14 May 2025; Accepted: 13 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jensen, Copplestone, Guidetti, Heer, Pittia and Berggren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Åsa Berggren, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.