Over the course of a few decades, scientists have learned how insect endosymbiont bacteria affects insect reproduction and have used this understanding to control mosquito-born diseases. Seth Bordenstein talks about his research on the insect endosymbiont Wolbachia, human-microbiome interactions, and how the ecosystem of a host and its microbes can be refered to as a holobiont.

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Links for this Episode:

• Bordenstein Lab at Vanderbilt University
• mSystems: Getting the hologenome concept right: an eco-evolutionary framwork for hosts and their microbiomes.
• PLoS Biology: Gut microbiota diversity across ethnicities in the United States.
• PNAS: One prophage WO gene rescues cytoplasmic incompatibility in Drosophila melanogaster.
• Discover the Microbes within! The Wolbachia Project
• HOM Tidbit: Studies on Rickettsia-Like Micro-Organisms in Insects (1924 paper from Hertig and Wolbach)