Wolbachia
Sign in to saveWolbachia is a genus of gram-negative bacteria infecting many species of arthropods and filarial nematodes. The relationship between Wolbachia and its hosts ranges from parasitism through benign symbiosis up to obligate mutualism. It is one of the most common parasitic microbes of arthropods, and is possibly the most widespread reproductive parasite bacterium in the biosphere. Its interactions with hosts are complex and highly diverse across the various species in which it is found. Some host species cannot reproduce, or even survive, absent internal Wolbachia colonies. One study concluded tha
Taxonomy · GBIF
GENUS
- KingdomBacteria
- PhylumProteobacteria
- ClassAlphaproteobacteria
- OrderRickettsiales
- FamilyAnaplasmataceae
via GBIF · CC0
Article
27 sectionsContents
- History
- Method of sexual differentiation in hosts
- Effects of sexual differentiation in hosts
- Effect on aromatase
- Mechanism of host transfer
- Step 1: Physical transfer
- Predator-prey interactions
- Host–parasitoid/parasite interactions
- Shared plant and other food sources
- Step 2: Survival and proliferation in the new host
- Step 3: Vertical transmission
- Step 4: Spread within the host population
- Fitness advantages by ''Wolbachia'' infections
- Life-history consequences of ''Wolbachia'' infection
- Genomics
- Horizontal gene transfer
- Small RNA
- Relation to human-related infections
- Role in parasites
- Disease prevention
- Techniques and deployments
- Strain wMel, mixed-sex
- Male incompatibility
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Wolbachia is a genus of gram-negative bacteria infecting many species of arthropods and filarial nematodes. The relationship between Wolbachia and its hosts ranges from parasitism through benign symbiosis up to obligate mutualism. It is one of the most common parasitic microbes of arthropods, and is possibly the most widespread reproductive parasite bacterium in the biosphere. Its interactions with hosts are complex and highly diverse across the various species in which it is found. Some host species cannot reproduce, or even survive, absent internal Wolbachia colonies. One study concluded that more than 16% of neotropical insect species carry bacteria of this genus, and as many as 25 to 70% of all insect species are estimated to be potential hosts.
==History== The first organism classified as Wolbachia was discovered in 1924 by Marshall Hertig and Simeon Burt Wolbach in the common house mosquito. They described it as "a somewhat pleomorphic, rodlike, Gram-negative, intracellular organism [that] apparently infects only the ovaries and testes". Hertig formally described the species in 1936, and proposed both the generic and specific names: Wolbachia pipientis.