Community-wide analysis of horizontal symbiont transmission: oak gallwasps as a model system.

许多昆虫被微生物感染，包括被称为沃尔巴克氏菌和卡迪纳菌的细菌，这些细菌是从母亲传给后代的。这些细菌对携带昆虫的人的繁殖有一系列影响，其中一些影响很严重。其中一些细菌被提出作为控制有害昆虫的一种手段。然而，为了计划使用这种方法，我们需要知道所涉及的细菌是否可以从一种昆虫跳到另一种昆虫(一种称为水平传播的过程)。这必须发生，因为非常相似的细菌通常在非常不同的昆虫中发现，但它是如何发生的仍然鲜为人知。这个项目将着眼于一组密切互动的昆虫物种，这些昆虫生活在橡树上的一系列不同的虫卵中。这些群落由一组特定的猎物物种(形成虫胆的黄蜂)和其他以它们为食的物种(主要是寄生蜂)组成。该项目将评估这两组人交换细菌的程度，并测试关于哪种类型的相互作用更有可能导致传播的几个假设。

Many insects are infected by microorganisms, including bacteria called Wolbachia and Cardinium, that are passed from a mother to its offspring. These bacteria have a range of effects on the reproduction of their insect carriers, some of which are severe. Some of these bacteria have been proposed as a means by which harmful insects could be controlled. However, to plan for use of such approaches, we need to know if the bacteria involved can 'jump' (a process termed horizontal transmission) from one insect to another. This must happen, because very similar bacteria are commonly found in very different insects, but how it happens remains little understood. This project will look at a closely interacting set of insect species that inhabit a range of different galls on oaks. These communities consist of a specific set of prey species (the wasps that make the galls), and others that feed on them (primarily parasitic wasps). The project will assess the extent to which these two groups have exchanged bacteria, and test several hypotheses about which type of interaction are more likely to result in transmission.