How do aphids reproduce on plants so successfully? This is among the questions that Professor Dr. Caroline Müller and her research team are addressing at Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Biology. They have discovered that aphids are able to influence the quality of their food, and that this may enable them to construct a niche on their own host plants. Müller’s research team is located in the Transregio Collaborative Research Centre NC3 that is studying animals and their individual niches. They have published their findings in the journal New Phytologist.