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Steve PERLMAN - University of Victoria, Canada
Evolution and ecology of a Drosophila-Spiroplasma defensive symbiosis
| When |
Feb 21, 2020
from 11:00 to 12:00 |
|---|---|
| Contact Name | Salle des thèses, Equipe Loppin |
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Multicellular organisms commonly harbour microbes that protect them against natural enemies, and these defensive symbionts are important players in host-parasite evolution and ecology. We have been studying a symbiosis between Drosophila flies and a maternally inherited bacterial endosymbiont called Spiroplasma that protects against infection by parasitic nematodes and parasitic wasps. Protection appears to involve toxins called ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs). Spiroplasma genomes encode a diverse repertoire of RIP toxins, and we speculate that toxin diversity and evolution play an important role in specificity against different enemies.
Contact : B. Loppin