# The Control of Insect Metabolism through Nutrition-based Symbiosis

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA · 2020 · $191,169

## Abstract

Project Summary – PROJECT 2: JI, Gordon Bennett 
Insects play fundamental roles in human health by vectoring diseases and impacting food production. The 
success of insects is largely due to their symbiotic associations with beneficial bacteria that provide essential 
nutrition. This interaction has important parallels both with other animal-microbiome associations vital to host 
metabolism, and with host-pathogen interactions that rely on similar cellular mechanisms of nutritional 
exchange. However, bacterial microbiomes are diverse, have wide-ranging impacts on their hosts, and the 
cellular mechanisms that govern these interactions remain poorly understood. By developing a simplified 
model system, the proposed project will determine how animals regulate individual members of its microbiome 
at the cellular level to achieve balanced, essential nutrition. Preliminary work has identified a simple insect- 
bacteria symbiosis wherein the host relies on two bacterial species for nutrition. The proposed research will 
use a suite of advanced genomic, gene editing, and metabolomic approaches to (i) profile the genetic 
contributions of the host and its microbiome, (ii) determine how nutrients are synthesized, and (iii) understand 
how nutrients are exchanged between partners. Sequencing of host and bacterial genomes will provide a 
precise picture of the genetic determinants that underlie host-microbiome interactions. In addition, experiments 
will manipulate host diet to identify compensatory shifts in gene expression and metabolite production. 
Outcomes will indicate the genetic pathways involved in maintaining nutritional balance, and these conclusions 
will be experimentally verified with direct gene manipulations using CRISPR/Cas9.!By delineating how the host 
and its microbiome respond to diet, results will be leveraged to understand the cellular mechanisms that 
regulate and integrate the metabolisms of each partner. Developing this insect model, and associated research 
technologies, offers a critical approach by which to simplify issues that currently challenge direct investigation 
of host-microbiome interactions at the cellular level.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10007946
- **Project number:** 5P20GM125508-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA
- **Principal Investigator:** Gordon M Bennett
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $191,169
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-15 → 2020-08-01

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10007946

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10007946, The Control of Insect Metabolism through Nutrition-based Symbiosis (5P20GM125508-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10007946. Licensed CC0.

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