Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: this regulatory network, with their respective roles varying among insect species, tissues and infection contexts (Figure 1). Effective immunity requires coordination between recognition, signalling and effector responses to achieve pathogen control while preserving tissue homeostasis and survival (1). Understanding how these responses are regulated is therefore essential for explaining host-pathogen interactions and identifying opportunities to manage pests and disease vectors. The articles in this Research Topic approach these questions from complementary perspectives.They examine how responses vary with the challenge, how molecules involved in defence contribute to other host functions, and how communication and resource allocation across physiological systems shape immune responses.Differences between immune responses begin with the challenges insects encounter. In Coordination also involves the resources available for defence. Adamo (2026) synthesises evidence that insect muscle responds to immune signals, produces immune molecules, and redistributes metabolic resources during immune activation. The resulting costs to muscle performance and behaviour link defence to the wider demands of host fitness. Resource availability can also be influenced from outside the insect. Menezes et al. (2025) found that feeding on mice with a diet-induced obese and diabetic phenotype reduced Aedes aegypti survival and altered lipid and gut transcriptional profiles. In separate infection assays using blood supplemented with equivalent Zika virus titres, samples from these mice yielded lower midgut viral RNA levels without a significant change in infection prevalence; onward transmission was not measured. These complementary perspectives connect insect defence with both internal resource allocation and the nutritional inputs supplied by another host.Together, these studies point to several questions that remain open. How environmental and nutritional variation reshapes immune regulation across tissues and life stages is not yet clear, nor is the extent to which immune priming and the physiological trade-offs of defence jointly shape host fitness and pathogen transmission. Tracking molecular, cellular and organismal measures across the course of infection may help distinguish regulatory mechanisms that enhance protection from those that impose physiological costs, and could clarify how immune plasticity contributes to insect-pathogen co-evolution and informs more targeted pest and vector management.Across the collection, defence emerges as a context-dependent property of the host, shaped by the challenge encountered, the functions of immune regulators and communication among physiological systems. This perspective also opens questions about environmental modulation, immune priming and insect-pathogen co-evolution (Figure 1). Linking molecular changes to pathogen burden, host fitness and, where relevant, transmission will clarify which mechanisms support protection and which impose physiological costs. These distinctions are essential for translating insect immunology into targeted pest and vector management.
Source: Frontiers in Immunology
Language: English
Subfield: Immunology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7219901113