A diet containing fruits and vegetables contains pectins (plant polysaccharides). Pectin cannot be metabolized by mammalian cells in the gastrointestinal tract but is fermented by the gut microbiota ...

Fossil findings of insect feeding damage on plants are evidence that insects have been using plants as a food source for more than 400 million years. Researchers led by Roy Kirsch and Yannick Pauchet ...

A research team shows in a new study how leaf beetles could successfully use new and previously indigestible food sources in the course of evolution. The insects acquired enzymes from microorganisms ...