Overview: Like plants, all animals are covered in microbes – their microbiomes – which profoundly influence their wellbeing, the way they process their food, their hormonal balance, their ability to compete and, in some cases, what they do and how. So, because animals are so fascinating for us – just think about our pets, the birds we like to hear and watch, the large land and sea animals we like to go to see in the zoo and aqua park, including our near relatives, the monkeys, the reptiles that make us shiver, the fish we like to catch, and so on – we need to view them as animal:microbe holobionts and keep in mind the microbial contribution to their behaviour and wellbeing. Let’s figure out how microbes influence and sometimes control our animals (and us, since we are also an animal)!
Creation of the TFs is a work in progress: those already available are indicated by titles that are live links. Titles of those still in the pipeline are shown for context.
(For vignettes of some of the star actors in these stories, see the MicroInfluencerStar Portrait Gallery)
- Microbes of the rumen
- Antibiotic-producing bacteria structure the sloth fur microbiome
- Woodpeckers use fungi to soften tree wood
- Infections endangering wild aquatic animals
- Birds and Microbes
- Earthworms
- Termites and their microbes
- Blowflies
- Insects: the Wolbachia story
- Animals with chemosynthetic symbionts
- Fungus-farming insects
- Microbial control of animal behaviour
- The honeybee microbiome defines social grouping
- Fruit flies and their microbes
- Aggression of fruit flies steered by their microbiome
- Microbes protect host flies from predatory wasps
- Insects with microbial helpers for defence
- Bioluminescent microbes
- Coral reefs and their microbes
- Probiotics in disease prevention and treatment of coral reefs
- Animals/transgenic animals as experimental models for human: microbe interactions
- The microbial partners of stingless bees and their hives
- The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism