About 100 million years ago, the bacterium Wolbachia came up with a trick that has made it one of the most successful parasites in the animal kingdom: It evolved the ability to manipulate the sex lives of its hosts.
"When it developed this capability, Wolbachia spread rapidly among the world's populations of insects, mites, spiders and nematodes, producing the greatest pandemic in the history of life," says Seth Bordenstein, assistant professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt, who is studying the relationship between this parasitic bacteria and Nasonia, a genus of small wasps that prey on various species of flies, including houseflies, blowflies and flesh flies.
Bordenstein is a member of the Nasonia Genome Working Group, a collaboration of scientists who published the complete genomes of three species of Nasonia in the January 15 issue of the journal Science. In the paper the group identifies several genes that the wasps appear to have picked up from the bacteria.
"When it developed this capability, Wolbachia spread rapidly among the world's populations of insects, mites, spiders and nematodes, producing the greatest pandemic in the history of life," says Seth Bordenstein, assistant professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt, who is studying the relationship between this parasitic bacteria and Nasonia, a genus of small wasps that prey on various species of flies, including houseflies, blowflies and flesh flies.
Bordenstein is a member of the Nasonia Genome Working Group, a collaboration of scientists who published the complete genomes of three species of Nasonia in the January 15 issue of the journal Science. In the paper the group identifies several genes that the wasps appear to have picked up from the bacteria.
