Discover the Microbes Within: The Wolbachia Project

DMW Director Sarah Bordenstein hit the airwaves with Mark Martin to talk about how far discovery-based, student-driven science has come and what biotech waves go along with The Wolbachia Project.

Matters Microbial #37: Wolbachia and STEM: Two symbioses! Today, Sarah Bordenstein, Associate Research Professor of Biology & Entomology at Penn State University and Director of Discover the Microbes Within! The Wol...

Insect s***m have been spendin’ most of their lives living in Wolbachia phage’s paradise. The phage-reproduction axis of cytoplasmic incompatibility keeps on tunneling forward. https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adk9469

Just released: Project Guide that introduces students to bioinformatics and DNA Sequencing to determine taxonomic identity and evolutionary relatedness of arthropods, symbionts etc. Skills learned in this guide may be applied to The Wolbachia Project.

Lab 5: Bioinformatics PRE-LAB CONCEPTS Phylogenetics Phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relatedness among biological organisms. Phylogenetic trees are generally based on molecular data (DNA or amino acid sequence) and use tree-like branching patterns to illustrate evolutionary histories, as shown below for Wolbac...

It all started with a gaze into the future. Join us and other donors in our legacy of contributions to promote the general welfare of our communities during this giving season. Every gift counts. Your tax-deductible donation will help support The Wolbachia Project and our activities throughout the year from the One Health Microbiome Center that hosts the project. tinyurl.com/JoinOurImpact

The Wolbachia Project and One Health Microbiome Center have a global mission to train for the future and promote the broad wellbeing of the microbiome community at large. It is in the spirit of serving the public good that we ask givers to join our impacts and crucial next steps for 2024.

Today’s science jubilee at the Great Insect Fair by Penn State is tomorrow’s knowledge. That is a core value of Discover the Microbes Within! Can you spot the technology and swag? Would you like  to host us on the road?

Answer keys are now available online (Educators Only). Contact us for password access.

Answer Keys Answer Keys Below are answer keys for each of the project guides. Please contact us if you have any questions or request clarification of key concepts. PROJECT GUIDES Introduction to the Wolbachia Lab: Wolbachia & Reproductive Parasitism Lab 1: Arthropod

science took flight in the last decade because it stunts pathogenic viruses in insect disease vectors. This function is now at the heart of global control strategies to curb disease burden for humans and agriculture. Prof. Irene Newton dissects how at this GeneConvene seminar series on Wolbachia applications:

Identifying the mechanisms of Wolbachia-mediated virus inhibition November 23, 2022Table of contents below.Dr. Irene Garcia Newton describes her ongoing research using the Wolbachia/Drosophila melanogaster system to investi...

A major contribution of the field to the life sciences is it raised the profile of lateral gene movement from symbiotic bacteria to animal genomes. Sometimes, whole Wolbachia genomes slip into insect genomes, and sometimes just a few genes, and everything in-between. Wolbachia pioneer and Professor Julie Hotopp unravels this story in her GeneConvene talk below.

Wolbachia endosymbiosis and lateral gene transfer. Table of contents below.November 9, 2022Dr. Julie Dunning-Hotopp presents her latest research on the genomics of Wolbachia and their hosts. She describes he...

We are making our way farther into the matryoshka doll of the animal-Wolbachia-phage symbiosis - from genes to epigenetics. Follow that journey here. Teach the lessons. Contribute to the next phase of the journey in your labs, with your students.

Seth Bordenstein: Cytoplasmic Incompatibility and Male Killing Mechanisms Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Professor of Microbiome Sciences, Seth Bordenstein, presented to the Carnegie Institution for Science on November 14, 20...

85% of animal species are in Arthropoda, and 50% of the species harbor a symbiont whose prophage encodes the molecular mechanism that hijacks s***m-egg biology to spread
the symbiont. boils down the biology

Understanding the Cellular and Molecular Mechanism of Wolbachia-mediated Cytoplasmic Incompatibility Understanding the Cellular and Molecular Mechanism of Wolbachia-mediated Cytoplasmic Incompatibility - October 19, 2022Table of contents belowDr. Rupinder Ka...

She is building a science army to transform STEM and discovery-based education. Follow her path and Discover the Microbes Within! The Wolbachia Project on twitter, YouTube, etc. We are always looking for funding and donors to help transform the future.

Heard on Campus: Sarah Bordenstein, The Wolbachia Project | Penn State University Sarah Bordenstein, associate research professor in the Eberly College of Science, and director of "Discover the Microbes Within! The Wolbachia Project," on Sept. 13 talked about this pioneering project on biodiversity, biotechnology and bioinformatics that brings real-world scientific research and d...

When we rethink the role of the student, one in which grade achievement is replaced with meaningful work and sound discovery, it is normal to be continually inspired and see a better tomorrow. The database (wolbachiaprojectdb.org) is a good reminder of this every time you look at it. Check out the pictures of insects and gels with DNA, the student reports, the maps, and more.

Discover the Microbes Within: The Wolbachia Project updated their information in their About section.

Discover the Microbes Within: The Wolbachia Project updated their address.

We just posted a New Lab Activity on Sterility & Aseptic Technique!

Written by Vanderbilt graduate student Kaeli Bryant, this new lab encourages students to:

1. Learn about sterility and how to employ aseptic technique
2. Formulate a testable hypothesis
3. Explore microbial diversity from various environments

Submit an online survey for a chance to win a free Wolbachia Project t-shirt 👚👕

https://t.e2ma.net/message/01kqdg/0ty7d7w

email : Webview : Wolbachia Project Newsletter

Wolbachia symbionts can assist the speciation process of arthropods by preventing interbreeding -> e.g., cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) can kill F1 hybrids. Here in a new theoretical analysis, CI in host hybrid zones is examined further.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34953157/

Cytoplasmic incompatibility in hybrid zones: infection dynamics and resistance evolution - PubMed Cytoplasmic incompatibility is an endosymbiont-induced mating incompatibility common in arthropods. Unidirectional cytoplasmic incompatibility impairs crosses between infected males and uninfected females, whereas bidirectional cytoplasmic incompatibility occurs when two host lineages are infected w...

On this , we are thrilled to highlight Wolbachia all-star, Dr. Dylan Shropshire. From Tennessee to Montana, he embodies excellence in both science and education. He also has a pretty adorable research assistant...

Where are you from? What’s your background?
- I was born and raised in Chattanooga, TN, where my parents (and their parents) lived their entire lives. My dad was a truck driver, and my mom occasionally had work in retail. I was the first person in my family to get a high school diploma and, later, college degrees. I went to East Tennessee State University (ETSU) for my undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences and later to Vanderbilt University for my Ph.D. Now, I’m living in Missoula, Montana continuing to do research as a postdoctoral fellow. This is the first time in my life I’ve lived outside of Tennessee.

Why did you want to become a scientist?
- Initially, I didn’t. When I went to college, I intended to either become a high school biology teacher or become a psychiatrist. During my sophomore year of college, a guest professor came to one of my classes and talked about opportunities to do research at ETSU in behavior. Since I was interested in psychiatry, I was very interested in trying out behavior research. So, I applied and eventually started working in the lab studying how flies can be aggressive. I fell in love with studying insects and eventually decided to become a college professor instead of a high school teacher. Today, I continue to study insects, and I’m ever closer to my goal of being a college professor.

What’s the craziest arthropod/insect/model organism you’ve worked with or seen?
- In college, I took an ecology course where we would go on weekly field trips. One week, we went to a stream, set up a net across the stream, and went through the net's contents to identify what kind of life was in the stream. One of the most exciting things we found was a hellgrammite. These creepy crawlies are the larval form of the dobsonfly, a large winged insect with massive mandibles. I ended up taking one of the hellgrammites home and putting it in a tank in hopes that I’d eventually have a dobsonfly. Instead, my hellgrammite somehow escaped its tank and went missing until my roommate found it in their sock drawer.
Picture: https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/hellgrammite

What is the best part of being a scientist?
- Being a scientist means that you get to ask questions no one has ever asked and do your best to answer them. It’s exhilarating to be at the edge of knowledge and to be the expert on one tiny piece of what makes the world work. Even more exciting is that everyone else you work with is in the same situation; the person sitting beside you in the lab may study the same system but from a different angle and know it better than anyone in the world. Being around this type of excellence is fun. Also, you can sometimes bring your dog to work!

On this , we're highlighting the inspirational Bob Kuhn at Innovation Academy STEM Magnet School in Alpharetta, Georgia. In addition to teaching AP Biology and Biotechnology, he also runs DNA Club and mentors students in cutting-edge biology research (beyond school hours).

Why did you want to become a scientist?
- I grew up in a rural area in southwest Pennsylvania which is famous of its coal mines. When I was 8 or so, I had a lot of time on my hands and was given a paleontology book from the 1800’s. I spent a lot of time using tracing paper and tracing the fossil pictures and wondering a lot about what they were and what they did. My seventh-grade teacher allowed some of us to feed her class animals before school. It was my turn one day and her room was set up with lots of microscopes and containers. I spent some time looking through them at pond water organisms and I could not believe these things existed in their own world when no one was looking. From there I was interested in finding out what I did not know. My love of science and want to become a scientist grew from this idea that there was a living world I basically ignored in my routine life, but it was there just being ready to explore. The more I looked, the more questions I had.

Where are you from? What’s your background?
- I grew up in Pennsylvania and northern Virginia, but I have lived in Georgia for over 30 years. I started out in my hometown at Northern Virginia Community College then transferred to the University of Georgia where I earned two degrees in paleontology. My Master’s thesis focused less on paleontology and more on modern salt marsh foraminifera. I grew away from paleontology and gravitated towards ecology and biology. I became a public school teacher in 1997 and have taught biology in high school for over 20 years.

What is your favorite model organism?
- Through some Wolbachia studies, I have grown to love working with Isopod pillbugs. They are easy to keep, fascinating, but I wish easier to breed.

What’s the craziest arthropod/insect/model organism you’ve worked with or seen?
- I had a fellowship in Costa Rica in 2001 and saw a number of crazy arthropods. Although not an arthropod, I did get so see a velvet worm in the wild.

What is the best part of being a scientist?
- For me, I don't have some of the pressures of professional scientists so I enjoy working with them and developing science projects that my students can try. Most of these projects result from literature searches and making collaborative contacts with scientists around the world. I am always grateful that professional scientists will work with us and guide us along the way.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
- I love to cook, run, watch baseball, experience nice bourbon, and share a joke or two.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would you be?
- Run a small farm.

Synonymous sequence changes are not necessarily silent, and here they can have life-or-death consequences. Read more about the curious wmk gene from phage WO of Wolbachia that can kill males, nothing at all, or all males and females!

https://elifesciences.org/articles/67686

We're excited to introduce you to Dr. Rupinder (Rim) Kaur for . She's an excellent postdoctoral fellow in the Bordenstein lab, an important contributor to the field, and a major style icon in our lab! 🤩

Known to family, friends, and colleagues by Rim, she's an incredible scientist, and passionate about outreach. She is excited about "communicating science to the general audience and making them aware of how this single bacterium can save millions of lives."

Why did you want to become a scientist?
-Science is all about knowing the unknown. The zeal to chase those unknowns is what defined my trajectory to become a scientist.

What’s your background?
-I am a Biotechnology major from India. I come from a family where 70% members are medical-professional. When my mom was pregnant, my birth was delivered by my grandma, who was a gynecologist.

What advice would you give to a young scientist?
-Never undermine your potential. Starting is always hard but you can do it!

What are you working on right now?
-My work is centered around the global pandemic Wolbachia and I am trying to understand the cytological and biochemical mechanism of Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility that is now at the forefront of fighting mosquito-borne viral diseases such as Dengue, Zika, etc.

What is your favorite model organism?
- (without a doubt)! ;)

What is the best part of being a scientist?
-To keep educating yourself every single day and channel that knowledge to others, I believe is the best. I also enjoy mentoring students.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
-Outside of lab, I don’t waste a second to spend quality time with my loved ones. Love to play tennis, pool, cards, and go on hikes and long drives with my partner. My happy place is being surrounded by my family!

If you weren’t a scientist, what would you be?
-A pilot. Always have wished to fly a plane on my own.

Is your bench clean or messy?
-Definitely, clean. Mess give me anxiety that I tend to avoid at all costs.

Folks, a teacher and former students developed the 1st CRSIPR-Cas12 Sensor for surveying from DNA extractions. Congrats!!

Discovery-based labs that inspire the classroom are just the beginning of the full, innovative journey. What will you discover?

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.06.463384v1

Development of a Freeze-Dried CRISPR-Cas12 Sensor for Detecting Wolbachia in the Secondary Science Classroom Training the future synthetic biology workforce requires opportunity and exposure to biotechnology concepts and activities in secondary education. Detecting Wolbachia bacteria in arthropods using PCR has become a common way for secondary students to investigate and apply DNA technology in the scienc...

We're shining the spotlight on Dr. Amelia Lindsey, from the Department of Entomology at University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Dr. Lindsey is an important voice in the field, and we're honored she is sharing her story with us! Read on to learn more about Dr. Lindsey.

Why did you want to become a scientist?
-For me, it started with a love of nature . I grew up in the coastal range of California and spent a lot of time in the garden with my dad, on the coast, or hiking. I would stuff my pockets full of kelp, snails, and anything else I could snag. In middle and high school, I connected with biology and chemistry classes in which it felt like I had learned a big secret: genetics, chemistry, and other “hidden” processes had been right under my nose the whole time. Ultimately I am driven by my curiosity, and pursuing a career in research was a natural fit.

What’s your background?
-I grew up in California: about 45 minutes south of San Francisco. My mom works for local government (her background is in city planning), and my dad was a self-taught programmer (in the days before you needed a University degree to get such job). While the area has been a technology hub for decades now, California is also a huge center of agriculture. I grew up sandwiched between Apple (the tech company) and Apricots (literal orchards). I considered going into (bio)tech while I was a student at San José State University. It was the path that a lot of SJSU biology majors took. But, that never quite clicked with me, and I instead was on a path towards teaching high school biology. I didn’t realize academic research was an option for a career path until a few months before I graduated, at which point I shifted course pretty quickly and started looking into PhD programs. I imagine my path would have been different had I known about research and academia, but I think I have also benefited greatly from thinking about teaching and how we communicate science: skills I still need as an academic.

What are you working on right now?
-My research focuses on interactions between insects and the microbes that live inside of them. My favorite microbe is named Wolbachia: it lives in almost half of all insects and it changes how the insect reproduces. For example, some Wolbachia can result in sterility, or change the s*x of the insect’s offspring to female. While we know that Wolbachia lives in the ovaries (red and blue photo) and te**es (green and blue photo), we know very little about how Wolbachia is able to induce these changes to the insect. I am interested in very fundamental aspects of how this happens, and there is a lot of interest in understanding these processes from people who need to manage insect pests (such as mosquitos, or agricultural pests). If you can change how and if insects reproduce, you can better manage the pest population.

What is your favorite model organism?
-I have really grown to love working with Drosophila. Learning about genetics and realizing that genes and DNA are responsible for all the growing things in nature was truly a formative learning experience for me. With Drosophila, you can see the genetics happening. It is no longer hidden. I work with some other insects as well (i.e. parasitic wasps), but Drosophila are my go-to model organism.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
-Sharing my love of nature with my dogs. My partner and I do a lot of hiking with them. I love to kayak (turns out, the dogs do NOT). If I am not outside, then I’m either in the kitchen working on my next carbohydrate overload or losing myself to the depths of my twitter feed.

What’s a picture you’d like to share?
-Please see the (very important) photo of my two dogs and the fly mutations they are named after. A combination of my favorite things!

BREAKING news from CNN's MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE:
A mosquito control study that she helped lead was a "gold-standard" investigation that proved successfully drive down disease rates in community settings.

https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2021/6095805/adi-utarini/

Adi Utarini: The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 Find out why Adi Utarini is on this year’s list

What do you think or feel when Bill Gates writes about ? Consider sharing this with your classroom to inspire the students and feel connected with this globally-important bacterial symbiont.

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/An-amazing-breakthrough-in-fighting-dengue?WT.mc_id=20210903000000_MosquitoWeek2021_BG-PDM-PF-EnvIntROW-MWA_pl-Facebook_Mobile_Feed_ag_id6253763196359_ad_id6253764416759&WT.tsrc=BGPDM-PF&fbclid=IwAR325uNgEb_34Jci51WrEX-K_ReIqdnO71IVTiHMHwWaLpHtPe9DW-Y3ajc

This amazing breakthrough in fighting dengue is taking flight This mosquito has been transformed into a surprisingly powerful ally to save and improve lives.

It's video release Friday! This is our introduction to DNA bioinformatics: Sanger sequencing.

https://youtu.be/JnEnPdAIbEg

This is a great video to show students how Sanger sequencing works, and how to identify quality sequences.

A bittersweet note: This is Athena's last video with us (for now!) as she transitions to a position at the TN Dept of Health. We're so thankful she joined the project for the last year and a half! But don't worry, you can always find her on our YouTube page.

We've been working with the awesome students from the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt , and wanted to share some feedback for .

From an SSMV instructor after Dr. Seth Bordenstein presented on The Wolbachia Project: "When you disconnected from the Zoom call, students erupted in a round of applause and were very chatty about how excited they were to begin this project."

From an SSMV student: "I especially enjoyed learning about how Wolbachia can be used to suppress the population of mosquitoes due to the nuances of how it works (population replacement through the release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes, and population suppression through the release of male Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes)."

Have you incorporated The Wolbachia Project into your classroom yet? Read more about the project at: vu.edu/wolbachia, and contact us at wolbachiaproj [at] vanderbilt [dot] edu to schedule your shipment of free primers and controls.

We updated our video catalog with the release of a video on Remember to check out our full catalag of videos and hit that subscribe button. We hope teachers and students alike find them useful for embarking on the journey of microbial discovery.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FBU6IGKRB8

The Wolbachia Project Lab 4: Gel Electrophoresis In Lab 4 of The Wolbachia Project, we will be visualizing our DNA with gel electrophoresis. This video will address how gel electrophoresis works to separate...

Meet Luis for ! Luis is a graduate student at interested in DNA and chromatin structure.

Why did you want to become a scientist?
-I became a scientist because I want to learn new things and make discoveries that can help make people’s lives better.

What’s your background?
-I am from Lakeland, FL. I was raised there with my younger sister by our mom who immigrated from Cuba to make sure we would have better opportunities for education.

What is your favorite model organism?
-My favorite model organism to work on are immortalized human cells. We can use cells taken from human tissues and modify them to study biological phenomenon that can’t be easily observed in people.

What is the best part of being a scientist?
-I think the best part of being a scientist is getting the chance to be the first person to discover something new.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of work?
-Outside of work I like to do a lot of cooking and baking at home. I also like gardening, collecting plants, and playing with my dog, Leslie.

We love working with local students! The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt is diving into The Wolbachia Project, and getting hands-on practice with biodiversity, biotechnology, and bioinformatics.