[UA] Lemur-licious (was Re: Cultures in animals)

[Gaston Phillips]

(This is from the Kult Mailing List.  I figured, what with this animal
thread, that I'd share my other favorite weird animal thing - the Wolbachia
Virus.) 

(And if this is also mentioned somewhere in a Sourcebook I own, I'll be
shocked.)


on 2/28/01 6:21 PM, Bas Suverkropp/Jannie Atzema at suverkropp at ZONNET.NL
wrote:

>> Someone mentioned a virus to me.  This virus affects wasps.  It encrypts
>> the DNA in their semen.  However, if the female wasp is also a host to the
>> virus, it decrypts the semen and allows reproduction to occur.
> 
>> Has anyone heard of this?  Is there a reference you could point me to?
>> Because, well... I heard that and just thought "Kult."
> 
>> Gaston
> 
> 
> Hi, the entomologist is still on the list, even though he's an computer
> programmer these days.
> 
> The stuff your talking about are bacteria of genus Wolbachia. To quote a
> scientific article "Wolbachia are cytoplasmically inherited bacteria found in
> many arthropods. They induce various reproductive alterations in their hosts,
> including cytoplasmic incompatibility, thelytokous parthenogenesis,
> feminization and male-killing."
> 
> Some explanation:
> cytoplasmically inherited: this means that children are automatically
> infected, because the bacteria live inside the cells.
> cytoplasmic incompatibility: this is what Gaston mentions: Infected
> individuals will only produce offspring with other infected individuals. Or in
> most insects, infected females can mate with everyone to produce offspring,
> but infected males will not produce offspring with uninfected females
> ("everyday there is more of them, and less of us....")
> Mother                Father            Children
> Infected                clean            infected
> Infected                infected        infected
> Clean                    clean            clean
> Clean                    infected        dead
> 
> The mechanism is also called "kamikaze sperm", because it kills all fertilized
> eggs in the uninfected female, even those already fertilized by uninfected
> males!
> 
> thelytokous parthenogenesis: A female can produce other females from
> unfertilized eggs. These females are clones of the mother. arrhenotokous
> parthenogenesis means that males are produced from unfertilized eggs.
> feminization: pretty clear, males turning into females.
> male-killing: use your fantasy. Actually, I think it means that male offspring
> of an infected mother die in the womb.
> 
> Scary stuff. A Wolbachia strain infecting humans would definitly be a very
> Kultish device. The fact that Wolbachia is a bacteria means that it is
> susceptible to antibiotics and heat. Parthenogenous wasps held at high
> temperatures (+35 degrees celcius) or given antibiotics will suddenly produce
> male children.
> 
> Maybe some infecting bacteria actually plays a role in maintaining the
> illusion. Inducing high, almost lethal fevers will kill them, and now you will
> see through the illusion. But if you are male, your kids will be blind like
> everybody else, and if you are female, you will be infertile (unless you will
> find an uninfected male). Of course, being uninfected may cause more than
> cytoplasmic incompatibility, behavioural incompatibility may also be a result.
> Some of the crazy homeless may just be uninfected.....
> 
> A fascinating subject.
> Next week: how parasitoids eat their victims from within and influence their
> behaviour. Isn't entomology fun?
> 
> 
> Bas Suverkropp
> 
> A good short text on Wolbachia can be found at:
> http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arch/11_16_96/bob1.htm


I also found the following links about Wolbachia:

http://slashdot.org/science/01/02/08/136247.shtml
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/ur-pse020601.html




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