The discovery of new biologically active molecules and the biosynthetic pathways that produce them are important sources of inspiration – or at least starting points – for biomolecular engineering. Today's talk will focus on newly discovered reservoir of such molecules and pathways: the bacteria that form mutualistic associations with insects. Topics will include an illustrative example focused on a beetle, the power of whole genome sequencing to speed up discovery, the generality of insect-bacterial mutualisms, and the evolutionary insights such studies can provide.

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