The Wolbachia bacteria is exceptionally widely-spread with enormous numbers of organisms infected by it and yet it confers some benefits on the infected creatures. (WIKI: Wolbachia)
The bacteria is exceptionally good at spreading itself and it works these ways:
The reason this is interesting is various strains of mosquitos are infected with Wolbachia but not Aedes aegypti which is the one which spreads the Zika virus along with other delights such as Yellow Fever and more. (WIKI: Aedes aegypti)
Likely you're there already that scientists plan on trying to introduce Wolbachia into Aedes aegypti populations for the purpose of controlling them. Once you run out of non-infected males, the infected females should expire in short order and game over.
Gates Foundation and some others are supporting research into the possibility of this application but we have the same reservations as with anything of this nature that screwing with the ecology almost always backfires. However, the approach seems viable and the effects of Zika become worse progressively with each new bulletin. (WIKI: Zika virus)
Maybe we can jump ahead to what happens if introduction of Wolbachia results in triggering parthenogenesis in the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Then you will still have a live population of mosquitos and the females are the bloodsuckers. No idea of probabilities but it seems a valid concern when it has happened previously.
Note: parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction in which the males are not needed. (WIKI: Parthenogenesis)
Yours to consider and unknown on the best move.
The bacteria is exceptionally good at spreading itself and it works these ways:
- Male killing: infected males die during larval development, which increase the rate of born, infected, females.
- Feminization: infected males develop as females or infertile pseudo-females.
- Parthenogenesis: reproduction of infected females without males. Some scientists have suggested that parthenogenesis may always be attributable to the effects of Wolbachia. An example of a parthenogenic species is the Trichogramma wasp, which has evolved to procreate without males with the help of Wolbachia. Males are rare in this tiny species of insect, possibly because many have been killed by that very same strain of Wolbachia.
- Cytoplasmic incompatibility: the inability of Wolbachia-infected males to successfully reproduce with uninfected females or females infected with another Wolbachia strain. In the mechanism of cytoplasmic incompatibility, Wolbachia interferes with the parental chromosomes during the first mitotic divisions to the extent that they can no longer divide in sync.
The reason this is interesting is various strains of mosquitos are infected with Wolbachia but not Aedes aegypti which is the one which spreads the Zika virus along with other delights such as Yellow Fever and more. (WIKI: Aedes aegypti)
Likely you're there already that scientists plan on trying to introduce Wolbachia into Aedes aegypti populations for the purpose of controlling them. Once you run out of non-infected males, the infected females should expire in short order and game over.
Gates Foundation and some others are supporting research into the possibility of this application but we have the same reservations as with anything of this nature that screwing with the ecology almost always backfires. However, the approach seems viable and the effects of Zika become worse progressively with each new bulletin. (WIKI: Zika virus)
Maybe we can jump ahead to what happens if introduction of Wolbachia results in triggering parthenogenesis in the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Then you will still have a live population of mosquitos and the females are the bloodsuckers. No idea of probabilities but it seems a valid concern when it has happened previously.
Note: parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction in which the males are not needed. (WIKI: Parthenogenesis)
Yours to consider and unknown on the best move.
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