TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Overlooked Microbiomes of Predators, Parasitoids, and Entomopathogens May Determine the Reliability and Transferability of Biological Control
A1  - Emma Wilson
A1  - Frederik De Jong
A1  - Lara Peters
A1  - James Anderson
JF  - Entomology and Applied Science Letters
JO  - Entomol Appl Sci Lett
SN  - 2349-2864
Y1  - 2025
VL  - 12
IS  - 4
DO  - 10.51847/t8b3psYlJa
SP  - 23
EP  - 36
N2  - Biological-control agents are commonly characterized by species identity, developmental stage, physiological condition, reproductive performance, infectivity, or target-suppression capacity, whereas their associated microbial communities are rarely treated as potential determinants of product reliability. This omission matters because predators, parasitoids, entomopathogens, and their hosts carry microorganisms that may influence nutrition, development, host resistance, infection processes, environmental persistence, and higher-trophic interactions. This research-agenda article integrates evidence concerning microbiomes of predatory arthropods, parasitoid-associated microorganisms, microbiota of entomopathogens and their hosts, microbial effects on fitness and virulence, microbiome instability during rearing and release, and implications for biological-control quality assurance. The strongest defensible synthesis is that microbial context can modify biologically important traits in particular agent–host–environment combinations, but the available evidence does not support universal microbiome-performance rules or taxonomic release specifications. Community composition varies with species identity, diet, landscape, host or prey source, life stage, generation, rearing conditions, infection status, and analytical workflow. Functional evidence is stronger where microorganisms have been perturbed, reintroduced, transmitted, or tested through controlled host–pathogen challenges, yet laboratory effects remain insufficient to establish post-release persistence or operational effectiveness. The article therefore proposes a staged research logic that separates detection from colonization, function, causality, persistence, performance linkage, and prospective decision validation. Its central implication is that microbiome information should initially support surveillance, source attribution, causal investigation, and targeted pathogen exclusion rather than immediate lot acceptance or rejection. Progress requires compartment-specific sampling, production-source controls, longitudinal rearing-to-release designs, representative host-background challenges, reproducible analytical workflows, and prospective validation against biological-control outcomes.
UR  - https://easletters.com/article/the-overlooked-microbiomes-of-predators-parasitoids-and-entomopathogens-may-determine-the-reliabil-xzb5xcefjs0matc
ER  -