Wolbachia are maternally inherited bacteria that commonly spread through host populations by causing cytoplasmic incompatibility, often expressed as reduced egg hatch when uninfected females mate with infected males. Infected females are frequently less fecund as a consequence of Wolbachia infection. However, theory predicts that because of maternal transmission, these "parasites" will tend to ...

Obligate, intracellular bacteria of the genus Wolbachia often behave as reproductive parasites by manipulating host reproduction to enhance their vertical transmission. One of these reproductive manipulations, cytoplasmic incompatibility, causes a reduction in egg-hatch rate in crosses between individuals with differing infections. Applied strategies based upon cytoplasmic incompatibility have ...

Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) induced by the endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis causes complex patterns of crossing sterility between populations of the Culex pipiens group of mosquitoes. The molecular basis of the phenotype is yet to be defined. In order to investigate what host changes may underlie CI at the molecular level, we examined the transcription of a homolog of the Drosophila melano...

Wolbachia pipientis is a worldwide bacterial parasite of arthropods that infects germline cells and manipulates host reproduction to increase the ratio of infected females, the transmitting sex of the bacteria. The most common reproductive manipulation, cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), is expressed as embryonic death in crosses between infected males and uninfected females. Specifically, Wolba...

Four steps through which parasitic intracellular symbionts could bring about the evolution of two sexes are considered. In the first step, a primitive host population has biparental cytoplasmic inheritance and lacks gametic differentiation: parasitic cytoplasmic elements readily invade and spread by vertical transmission through such host populations, even if they have major deleterious effects...

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria are currently being released for arbovirus suppression around the world. Their potential to invade populations and persist will depend on interactions with environmental conditions, particularly as larvae are often exposed to fluctuating and extreme temperatures in the field. We reared Ae. aegypti larvae infected with different types of ...

Cytoplasmically inherited symbiotic Wolbachia bacteria are known to induce a diversity of phenotypes on their numerous arthropod hosts including cytoplasmic incompatibility, male-killing, thelytokous parthenogenesis, and feminization. In the wasp Asobara tabida (Braconidae), in which all individuals harbor three genotypic Wolbachia strains (wAtab1, wAtab2 and wAtab3), the presence of Wolbachia ...

Wolbachia is a cytoplasmically inherited alpha-proteobacterium found in a wide range of host arthropod and nematode taxa. Wolbachia infection in Drosophila is closely associated with the expression of a unique form of post-fertilization lethality termed cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). This form of incompatibility is only expressed by infected males suggesting that Wolbachia exerts its effect ...

OF THESIS ENDOSYMBIOTIC PREVALENCE AND REPRODUCTIVE MANIPULATION OF THE SPIDER MERMESSUS FRADEORUM Spiders are host to a plethora of heritable endosymbiotic bacteria. Broad-taxa screening studies indicate that endosymbionts are particularly common among spiders, however, little is known about how these bacteria affect their spider hosts. In insects, these bacteria ensure vertical transmission b...