Comments on: One parasite to rule them all – Wolbachia protects against mosquito-borne diseases

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:36:35 +0000

The other concern with biological control is what the control agent will do to *other* species.
I’m not an arthropod, so I guess I don’t have to worry about it getting into *my* gametes – at least, not unless it makes quite a few evolutionary leaps – but what about every other prey animal, insectivore, or blood-drinking insect (e.g. horseflies?)

By: Murfomurf

Murfomurf — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:25:39 +0000

This certainly sounds promising, but I’m reminded of the myxomatosis used to kill off feral rabbits in Australia- they eventually developed a resistant rabbit population. Then they brought in another virus- I think it was a parvovirus (?)- and now, not many years later, the rabbits are appearing again. What makes the rabbits so adapted to our “foreign” environment, that they can survive in sufficiently resistant numbers to save their species from two fullblown biological attacks? Mosquitoes are rather ubiquitous and so I thought they might become resistant to Wolbachia fairly swiftly as well… Hmm…thoughts?

By: Captain Skellett

Captain Skellett — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:17:43 +0000

Wolbachia IS cool! They do some crazy things in their female-boosting game. In some insects they even cause the males to turn into females, or encourage the females to reproduce by parthenogenesis (virgin birth). Amazing little microbes.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:20:13 +0000

The advantage of using a biological control agent in this manner is that selective pressure works both ways. As much as mosquitos with resistance to wolbachia may be selected, those wolbachia that can evade the mosquito’s resistance will also be selected.

By: djlactin

djlactin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:48:48 +0000

If Wolbachia is successfully introduced into wild mosquitoes, and becomes widespread, malaria will first drop, but in time selective forces will favor “resistant” forms of Plasmodium (and the other pathogens).