Kareena Collins, a students at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, worked with Paul Ginsberg and Dr. Kelly Dyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abstract: Wolbachia<\/em> is a maternally inherited\nintracellular endosymbiont that can manipulate reproduction in many different\nspecies of arthropod hosts, enabling its invasion into novel host populations.\nThe most common types of reproductive manipulation is cytoplasmic incompatibility\n(CI), where mating between an uninfected females and infected males results in\nembryonic mortality. Two Drosophila<\/em> species, D. recens and D. subquinaria,<\/em> were used to investigate whether Wolbachia<\/em> can affect mating preference\nin a native versus non-native host species. D.\nrecens<\/em> is the infected species of Wolbachia<\/em>\nwith a frequency ~ 98%, while D.\nsubquinaria<\/em> is the uninfected host of Wolbachia<\/em>.\nIn the geographic region where both species overlap there is gene flow between\nspecies. We introgressed Wolbachia<\/em>\nfrom D. recens<\/em> into D. subquinaria<\/em> in the laboratory. Both\nspecies show the CI phenotype in the lab when there is a cross with an\nuninfected female and an infected male. We conducted no choice mate trials for\nall crosses among infected and uninfected individuals for each species (all\nintraspecific crosses), and watched for mating for a three hour observation\nperiod. We found that Wolbachia<\/em> had\nno effect on mating preference in the native host, D. recens<\/em>. However, in the non-native host, D. subquinaria<\/em>, Wolbachia<\/em>\nhad a huge effect on mating preference, with a significant reduction of mating\nrate in the cross between an uninfected female and an infected male ( the\n\u201cincompatible\u201d cross). Because Wolbachia<\/em>\nhad such a significant effect on mating preference only in the non-native host\nof D. subquinaria<\/em>, it has potential\nimplications for Wolbachia<\/em>\u2019s\ninability to become established as a native host in the population and\/or\nspecies. <\/p>\n\n\nCollins<\/a>\n Kareena Collins, a students at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, worked with Paul Ginsberg and Dr. Kelly Dyer. Abstract: Wolbachia is a maternally inherited intracellular endosymbiont that can manipulate reproduction in many different species of arthropod hosts, enabling its invasion into novel host populations. The most common types of reproductive manipulation is cytoplasmic incompatibility<\/p>\n