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HIGH RATES OF GENE EXCHANGE. "Here, we discuss how studies on the temperate bacteriophage WO of Wolbachia have revealed unexpected levels of genomic flux and are challenging previously held views about the clonality of obligate intracellular bacteria." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

HIGH LATERAL TRANSFER. "The discovery of an extraordinarily high level of mobile elements in the genome of Wolbachia, a widespread arthropod and nematode endosymbiont, suggests that this bacterium could be an excellent model for assessing the evolution and function of mobile DNA in specialized bacteria." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

WOLBACHIA INSECT PANDEMIC. "In Asobara tabida insects and cell lines from Drosophila simulans flies and Aedes mosquitoes, Wolbachia is involved in iron metabolism of the host. These bacteria can also be transmitted horizontally across species, which has led to a pandemic-level distribution in invertebrates: current estimates place Wolbachia in 66% of all arthropod species." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

WALBACHIA HOST MANIPULATION. "In addition to modifying reproduction, Wolbachia spp. have recently been shown to confer resistance against RNA viruses, influence locomotion in response to food cues and increase egg laying of females reared on low- or high-iron diets in Drosophila." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

WOLBACHIA BIOLOGY. "During their 100-million-year association with their hosts, the maternally-transmitted bacteria have evolved as “reproductive parasites” that cause cytoplasmic incompatibility, feminization, parthenogenesis, and male killing in arthropods, while in nematodes and some arthropods, they are mutualistic and can be required for host oogenesis or larval development." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

INFLAMMASOMES. "Perhaps the best piece of evidence in favor of an origin of apoptosis in the context of host defense is the fact that apoptosis‐initiating complexes such as the apoptosome and immunity‐activating complexes such as the inflammasomes are very similar to each other." https://celldeath.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/lopezself_munoz.pdf View in LinkedIn

DEATH AS CARNAGE? "A significant fraction of the cells that are generated in C. elegans are subsequently eliminated by programmed cell death: about 12% during somatic development, even more in the germ line. Many a student of C. elegans, impressed by the efficiency and finesse of its development, has marveled at this apparent waste of energy." https://lnkd.in/dVeZ2yE View in LinkedIn

CHEATERS. "The origins of a suicidal program in single‐celled organisms are hard to understand, because the cells that acquired the ability to kill themselves would likely have a disadvantage and the emergence of “cheaters” with mutant genes would impair the maintenance of such a program. However, the emergence of such a process could be explained in the context of an infection." https://celldeath.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/lopezself_munoz.pdf View in LinkedIn

AUTOPHAGY. "Potential convergence on the autophagic death phenotype also indicates that death-promoting mechanisms may have been selected for in unicells. The autophagic death phenotype and elements of its molecular pathway have been described in evolutionarily diverse, unrelated unicellular eukaryotes such as the stramenopiles, the kinetoplastids and the social amoebae." View in LinkedIn

PROKARYOTIC DEATH GENES. "The caspase gene super-family is involved in cell death in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, suggesting that it is functionally conserved and arose early in prokaryote evolution." View in LinkedIn