Almuth Hammerbacher

Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data Availability Statement The data that supports the findings of this study are available in the of this article. Supporting Information Filename Description ppa70207-sup-0001-TableS1.docxWord 2007 document , 18.9 KB Table S1: Host RNA-seq read mapping statistics.

I. INTRODUCTION Bark beetles are natural disturbance agents that drive the structure and function of conifer forests worldwide. However, in the Anthropocene they are causing unprecedented tree mortality (Hlásny, Zimová & Bentz, 2021). Despite their importance, we lack a comprehensive understanding of bark beetles in a broader community ecology context. Here, we focus on ‘true’ tree-killing bark beetles and their symbiotic fungal partners that can cause outbreaks in their native habitat.