Carl Zimmer has a few excellent micro-focused posts that you shouldn't miss. Yesterday the topic was new research demonstrating kin selection in amoebae, and earlier in the week, he wrote about Wolbachia, a fascinating bacteria that infects a large number of insects. (Those of you who've read Margulis' "Acquiring Genomes" may remember that infection with this bacterium can decrease fertility between individual insects who are differential in the presence of Wolbachia, potentially leading to reproductive isolation. Josh has more on this).
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This is an updated version of the first post I wrote this year. The scientists in question were looking at ways of recruiting bacteria in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever. They've just published new results that expand on their earlier experiments.
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tags: Microcosm, microbiology, bacteria, E coli, evolution, Carl Zimmer, book review
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This is a really cool study. It's been known for some time that species of insects infected by the intracellular parasite Wolbachia are occasionally infertile with uninfected members of their own species, and hypothesised that this might cause speciation to occur. What nobody that I read, at any…
The first lab I worked in was a fruit fly lab. As a budding mammalogist, this wasn't the most optimal environment, but it had its advantages. I learned to work with flies, and the advantages of model systems. I learned to clean glassware with speed and grace. I learned that science involves a…
Thanks for the links, Tara. I think you're missing an /a tag--half the post is a link...
Sorry! Swear I previwed this before I scheduled it...guess not closely enough. :)