Amazing Nature Surprising Nature

2001/05/15 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Mikrobiologia
• Zoologia

The Asobara Tabbed Wasp has no choice, if you have offspring you must live with the parasitic bacteria Wolbachia. The discovery was made by researchers at the Villeurbanne University of France, Frank Dedeine and Claude Bernard, while treating the wasp larvae with an antibiotic to kill the bacteria. Surprised, the female larvae treated with antibiotics saw that when growing they had no capacity to produce eggs.

The parasitic bacterium Wolbachia contaminates a lot of invertebrates and participates in its reproduction. The bacterium is transmitted from generation to generation through eggs deposited by contaminated females and uses countless strategies to survive. For example, when not transmitted through sperm, uncontaminated females and contaminated males prevent having offspring. On the contrary, no, since it guarantees that the descendants of this species are also contaminated. Sometimes, the bacterium Wolbachia is able to transform the larva that will be male to female.

In the case of the Asobara wasp, control over the reproduction of the host species remains even greater, since the eggs without parasite do not develop. Without parasites the wasp is sterilised.