Wolbachia are maternally inherited bacteria that are found in a wide range of arthropods and filarial nematodes. The proposed research will use Neotropical fig wasps as a model system to study the dynamics and fitness effects of Wolbachia in their insect hosts. Specifically, the proposed research will investigate: 1) the population dynamics of Wolbachia, 2) the effects of Wolbachia on their hosts' reproduction, 3) the molecular evolution of Wolbachia and the effects of Wolbachia on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA variation in host populations, and 4) the ecological and evolutionary transmission of Wolbachia. Ultimately, combination of these data will provide the clearest picture yet of how transmission patterns, host population structure, and Wolbachia effects on host reproduction interact to influence Wolbachia dynamics in natural host populations.
BECAUSE OF THEIR WIDESPREAD DISTRIBUTION AND THEIR VARIED PHENOTYPIC EFFECTS AND ABILITY TO MANIPULATE THEIR HOSTS IN NUMEROUS WAYS, WOLBACHIA CURRENTLY ARE OF INTEREST TO A BROAD SPECTRUM OF BIOLOGISTS INCLUDING THOSE STUDYING HOST-PARASITE EVOLUTION, EVOLUTION OF VIRULENCE, INTRAGENOMIC CONFLICT, SELFISH GENETIC ELEMENTS, POPULATION GENETICS, AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY IN GENERAL. IMPORTANTLY, BECAUSE WOLBACHIA OCCUR IN A NUMBER OF HOST SPECIES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH SERIOUS HUMAN DISEASES, INCLUDING MOSQUITOES, TSETSE FLIES, AND FILARIAL NEMATODES, THESE MICROBES MAY PROVE TO BE USEFUL AGENTS FOR BIOLOGICAL MANIPULATION OF THESE SPECIES, FOR INSTANCE BY DRIVING THE SPREAD OF GENES CONFERRING RESISTANCE TO PARASITES OR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO PESTICIDES. THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS WILL ADDRESS BOTH THE SHORT- AND LONG-TERM DYNAMICS OF WOLBACHIA AND MITOCHONDRIAL EVOLUTION WITHIN FIG WASPS AND WILL BE RELEVANT TO DETERMINING WHETHER WOLBACHIA CAN DRIVE SLIGHTLY DELETERIOUS, MATERNALLY INHERITED GENES INTO A POPULATION.
