About this Research Topic
Microbial control is a branch of biological control that employs entomopathogenic microorganisms for the management of insect such as pests of crops, forests, urban habitats, and arthropods of medical and veterinary importance. Thus, insect-pathogenic microbes including fungi, bacteria, viruses, and protozoa are key components of integrated pest management strategies worldwide. Interactions between entomopathogenic microorganisms and their hosts involved different microbe-specific mechanisms, which drive pathogenic cycles that usually culminate killing the hosts. On the other hand, the host defenses try to either exclude the pathogen or mitigate its damage by activating different immune responses.
Entomopathogenic fungi are the only insect pathogens able to infect their host by adhesion to the surface and penetration through the cuticle. Microsporidia are pathogenic protists related to the Fungi that infect their hosts by spores’ ingestion and/or by transmission via eggs. Both entomopathogenic bacteria and viruses must be ingested by hosts to cause a pathogenic effect. Regardless of the different mechanisms employed by different pathogens, they must modulate infection to avoid competitive proliferation of other opportunistic microbes while delaying host death to produce enough critical infective units to continue a successful infective cycle, especially for those depending exclusively on host for propagation, triggering specific responses in their hosts to counteract pathogenesis.
This research topic will be focus on all aspects of the interaction between invertebrate-pathogenic microbes and their wide range of hosts, with emphasis in pathogenesis. It welcomes original research articles, reviews, methods, protocols, communications, and perspectives that dissect the ecological and molecular mechanisms behind microbe–arthropod interactions, including:
• Advances in the use of entomopathogenic microorganisms for controlling insects, ticks, and other arthropods pest of crops, forests, and urban habitats, and those vectors of diseases of importance in human and veterinary medicine
• Advances in the molecular and biotechnological approaches regarding the comprehension of infection mechanisms of entomopathogenic microbes, especially in the characterization of genes, toxins, and metabolites associated with pathogenicity, virulence, host specificity, and cell differentiation
• Mechanisms associated with the cellular and humoral aspects of the host’s immune response after microbial infection.
Entomopathogenic fungi are the only insect pathogens able to infect their host by adhesion to the surface and penetration through the cuticle. Microsporidia are pathogenic protists related to the Fungi that infect their hosts by spores’ ingestion and/or by transmission via eggs. Both entomopathogenic bacteria and viruses must be ingested by hosts to cause a pathogenic effect. Regardless of the different mechanisms employed by different pathogens, they must modulate infection to avoid competitive proliferation of other opportunistic microbes while delaying host death to produce enough critical infective units to continue a successful infective cycle, especially for those depending exclusively on host for propagation, triggering specific responses in their hosts to counteract pathogenesis.
This research topic will be focus on all aspects of the interaction between invertebrate-pathogenic microbes and their wide range of hosts, with emphasis in pathogenesis. It welcomes original research articles, reviews, methods, protocols, communications, and perspectives that dissect the ecological and molecular mechanisms behind microbe–arthropod interactions, including:
• Advances in the use of entomopathogenic microorganisms for controlling insects, ticks, and other arthropods pest of crops, forests, and urban habitats, and those vectors of diseases of importance in human and veterinary medicine
• Advances in the molecular and biotechnological approaches regarding the comprehension of infection mechanisms of entomopathogenic microbes, especially in the characterization of genes, toxins, and metabolites associated with pathogenicity, virulence, host specificity, and cell differentiation
• Mechanisms associated with the cellular and humoral aspects of the host’s immune response after microbial infection.
Keywords: Insect pathogens, entomopathogenic fungi, entomopathogenic bacteria, entomopathogenic viruses, entomopathogenic protozoa
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
