Wolbachia are bacteria that infect and induce reproductive alterations in a large number of arthropods. The present study was undertaken to improve our understanding of the effects that Wolbachia have on the reproductive biology of the leaf beetle Chelymorpha alternans Boh, in Panama. Two strains of Wolbachia occur in C. alternans, both of which induce some degree of cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), a reproductive problem occurring when individuals bearing different infection status are mated together resulting in lowered levels of egg fertility. I attempted to localize where Wolbachia occurs in highest density in male reproductive tissues and to see if variation in Wolbachia density was associated with levels of CI in crossing experiments involving males (1) differing in age, (2) carrying different strains and (3) belonging to different populations previously known to vary in their levels of CI. Wolbachia were found to occur only in the somatic cells surrounding the testis, rather than in the germ cells, and yet were capable of inducing strong CI. Male age, infection status and provenance all were factors affecting the level of CI induced.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.100760 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Bailey-Jourdain, Catherine. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Natural Resource Sciences.) |
| Rights | © Catherine Bailey-Jourdain, 2006 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002593354, proquestno: AAIMR32656, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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