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The Viagra of Parasites?

Apr 18, 2007

Andrew Weeks of the University of Melbourne published a paper in PLoS Biology which used Drosophila simulans to describe the evolution of Wolbachia, a maternally inherited bacteria that causes the host to hatch fewer eggs when uninfected females mate with Wolbachia-carrying males. However, over time, changes in the parasite's genome actually allow its hosts to have higher egg counts than non-infected hosts. Go figure.

 

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