Bacterial sequences in invertebrate genomes
There are many descriptions of bacterial genes that have been found within nematode and arthropod chromosomes. In this article in Microbiology Today, Julie Dunning Hotopp and Jason Rasgon explain how they got there:
The arthropod-infecting Wolbachia exert unusual effects on host reproduction, including parthenogenesis, whereby infected virgin females produce infected female offspring, male killing, whereby infected male embryos fail to develop, feminization, whereby genetic males develop into reproductively capable females, and cytoplasmic incompatibility, the most common phenotype, whereby the offspring of uninfected females and infected males fail to develop. Wolbachia are maternally inherited, being transferred through the egg cytoplasm. Therefore, these reproductive phenotypes favouring Wolbachia-infected females increase the proliferation of Wolbachia-infected arthropods. Wolbachia are parasitic endosymbionts, since the interaction benefits Wolbachia while exerting a negative effect on the host by limiting genetic exchange. However, a mutualistic role benefiting both organisms cannot be excluded.
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Tags: Bacteria, Genetics, Microbiology, Science
