Wolbachia Bacteria

[kitkat]

The wolbachia bacteria that infects 75% of arthropods is in the process of moving its entire genome into these species. Is this comparable to when mitochondria moved into us?

[Mr Skeptic]

Thanks for sharing. That was surprising and very interesting. I don't think they are comparable to mitochondria since they don't seem to provide vial cell services, but they do seem to have become vital in many species for reproduction. The most interesting example was this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.

[kitkat]

Thanks for sharing. That was surprising and very interesting. I don't think they are comparable to mitochondria since they don't seem to provide vial cell services, but they do seem to have become vital in many species for reproduction. The most interesting example was this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolbachia

 

The same process is going on in the sea slug in that the chloroplasts genome is slowing becoming a permanent member of the sea slug's DNA. These are perfect examples of showing us in real time how we obtain the entire genome of other species (mitochondria origin) or genes from other species that provide traits that improve reproduction.