How do phytophagous insects affect phyllosphere fungi? Tra

What this paper is about

Fungi living on a leaf surface have to survive being eaten along with the leaf. The authors sequenced the fungal community on milkweed leaves and again in the frass of monarch caterpillars that had eaten them.

Yeasts dominated what came out the other end, which is not what dominated the leaf.

Summarised here from the abstract below. Not the authors’ words.

Abstract

Since a significant proportion of plant matter is consumed by herbivores, a necessary adaptation for many phyllosphere microbes could be to survive through the guts of herbivores. While many studies explore the gut microbiome of herbivores by surveying the microbiome in their frass, few studies compare the phyllosphere microbiome to the gut microbiome of herbivores. High-throughput metabarcode sequencing was used to track the fungal community from milkweed (Asclepias spp.) leaves to monarch caterpillar frass. The most commonly identified fungal taxa that dominated the caterpillar frass after the consumption of leaves were yeasts, mostly belonging to the Basidiomycota phylum. While most fungal communities underwent significant bottlenecks and some yeast taxa increased in relative abundance, a consistent directional change in community structure was not identified from leaf to caterpillar frass. These results suggest that some phyllosphere fungi, especially diverse yeasts, can survive herbivory, but whether herbivory is a key stage of their life cycle remains uncertain. For exploring phyllosphere fungi and the potential coprophilous lifestyles of endophytic and epiphytic fungi, methods that target yeast and Basidiomycota fungi are recommended.

Abstract reproduced from the published paper, which is licensed CC BY. Copyright remains with the authors.

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APA

Milkweed USA. (2026). How do phytophagous insects affect phyllosphere fungi? Tracking fungi from milkweed to monarch caterpillar frass reveals communities dominated by fungal yeast (listing). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/research/how-do-phytophagous-insects-affect-phyllosphere-fungi-tracking-fungi-2024/

MLA

"How do phytophagous insects affect phyllosphere fungi? Tracking fungi from milkweed to monarch caterpillar frass reveals communities dominated by fungal yeast (listing)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/research/how-do-phytophagous-insects-affect-phyllosphere-fungi-tracking-fungi-2024/. Accessed DATE.

Chicago

Milkweed USA. "How do phytophagous insects affect phyllosphere fungi? Tracking fungi from milkweed to monarch caterpillar frass reveals communities dominated by fungal yeast (listing)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/research/how-do-phytophagous-insects-affect-phyllosphere-fungi-tracking-fungi-2024/.

BibTeX

@misc{milkweedusa_researchhowdophytophagousins,
  title  = {How do phytophagous insects affect phyllosphere fungi? Tracking fungi from milkweed to monarch caterpillar frass reveals communities dominated by fungal yeast (listing)},
  author = {{Milkweed USA}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://milkweedusa.com/research/how-do-phytophagous-insects-affect-phyllosphere-fungi-tracking-fungi-2024/},
  note   = {Accessed DATE}
}