Associate Professor, Georgia Gwinnett College, GA
Dr. James Russell, Assistant Professor of Biology at Georgia Gwinnett College has introduced the Wolbachia-host parthenogenesis induction system to colleagues and Biology majors at GGC. Dr. Russell and his team of high school and undergraduate researchers seek to clarify some of the theoretical assumptions and characteristics associated with the ecology and evolution of Wolbachia infection. Unlike the vast majority of species infected with Wolbachia where infection has spread to fixation (100%), Trichogramma kaykai has a low level of infection frequency (no higher than 26% infected females). Furthermore, T. kaykai is the only known species that can be antibiotically-cured of infection which allows the conversion of asexually reproducing individuals into sexually reproducing individuals in laboratory maintained lines. This labile reproductive feature allows experimental manipulation that would be impossible in any other symbiotic system and allows for the measurement and testing of hypotheses related to the assumed “cost of sex” and female sexual function. Dr. Russell’s team of student researchers and I collected wasps from 3 lines of T. kaykai (uninfected, infected with Wolbachia and antibiotically-cured) from which we isolated total RNA. The isolated RNA will be used for RNA-Seq analysis to provide data on the differential expressed genes in these 3 lines or T. kaykai. We proposed to use this data as the basis for an upper-level course for Biology majors in bioinformatics and research methodology.
Materials are under development.
Materials are under development.
Image courtesy: National Science Foundation
Image courtesy: National Science Foundation
Image courtesy: James Russell
Image courtesy: James Russell