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The article discusses the study about the mutualistic symbioses between plant and fungi or bacteria featuring cellular mechanisms and molecular pathways in the subjects' development and evolution. The study mentions the communication of mutualistic microorganisms with plants, circumvention of fungi against plant immune responses, and modulation of associated root developmental pathways.

The article reports on a case study that examined the evolutionary effects of a bacterial symbiont that was introduced into a population of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. Over a period of six years, the introduction of a symbiont of the bacteria Rickettsia dramatically increased the survival rate and fecundity of the host population in the southwestern U.S. While microbiologists have allegedly long known the importance of horizontal gene transfer between organisms, it has not been as commonly studied in multicellular organisms such as arthropods.