Insect heritable symbionts have proven to be ubiquitous, based on molecular screening of various insect lineages. Recently, molecular and experimental approaches have yielded an immensely richer understanding of their diverse biological roles, resulting in a burgeoning research literature. Increasingly, commonalities and intermediates are being discovered between categories of symbionts once considered distinct: obligate mutualists that provision nutrients, facultative mutualists that provide protection against enemies or stress, and symbionts such as Wolbachia that manipulate reproductive systems. Among the most far-reaching impacts of widespread heritable symbiosis is that it may promote speciation by increasing reproductive and ecological isolation of host populations, and it effectively provides a means for transfer of genetic information among host lineages. In addition, insect symbionts provide some of the extremes of cellular genomes, including the smallest and the fastest evolving, raising new questions about the limits of evolution of life.

中文翻译：

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基因组学和可遗传细菌共生体的进化。

根据各种昆虫谱系的分子筛选，已证明昆虫遗传共生体无处不在。最近，分子和实验方法对它们的多种生物学作用产生了更为丰富的理解，从而产生了蓬勃发展的研究文献。曾经被认为与众不同的共生体类别之间的共性和中间点越来越多：提供营养的专职共生者，为敌人或压力提供保护的兼职共生者以及操纵生殖系统的共生体（例如沃尔巴克氏体）。广泛的遗传共生关系最深远的影响之一是，它可能通过增加对寄主种群的生殖和生态隔离而促进物种形成，它有效地提供了在宿主谱系之间转移遗传信息的方法。此外，昆虫共生体提供了细胞基因组的某些极端情况，包括最小和最快的进化，这引发了有关生命进化极限的新问题。